REIMS - France - World War II Ended Here

Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims. They are doing repair work.

It is called learning readiness - I never heard of Reims before. The word just blended into the background of world news for me. When Lulu said she wanted to see Reims - I said what the heck. 

Reims sits about 80 miles northeast of Paris. It is the capital of champagne country. Just south of town is Epernay which Don Perginon Champagne is bottled. 

 

This is the Reims Opera House from the second floor of McDonalds. You can see the Notre Dame Cathedral sticking out over the roof.

The Notre Dame Cathedral was the site of many of the French coronations. Louis XIV was crowned here. The cathedral was started in 1210. It was damaged in both World Wars. Imagine - this church has been standing 800 years.

This is the east side - or back - of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims.

It 11 pm - they have a 20 minute multi-media show - lights showing how the cathedral looked when it was painted. 

This I did not know - World War II in Europe ended in this school by the train station in Reims.  General Eisenhower had his headquarters in this school - 3 Nazi generals were brought in - they tried to negotiate - but the Allies said - all or nothing at all. They turned part of the school into a museum. In the Godfather movie they said - I will either have your signature or your brains on that paper.

This was Ike's War Room. The 3 Germans sat on this side of the table - 8 Allied Leaders sat on the other side. I am guessing they sat there so they could get a good picture.

Some people say that Christ's last words at The Last Supper were -  everybody get over on this side of the table so we can get a picture. I am sure Bedell-Smith had the same thing in mind.

 

I never saw a real SS Uniform before

In this photo Ike is saying - your grandkids are going to love this. It is called an iPhone.

Here is a USA newspaper exclaiming the surrender at Reims.

We also found an auto museum this afternoon. It was so hot out - I thought it would be a good place to escape the heat - but  these was no air conditioning. We are having a heat wave here - they do not know how to do air conditioning like Florida. This is a favorite of mine - the Citroen 2CV - is has a 2 cylinder air cooled engine.

This picture captures the auto museum and my sweat soaked Russian army uniform. 

We stayed at the Hotel Europe in Reims. Lulu got it on Priceline for 61 euros a night for 2 nights. I am typing in there right now.  My demands are few - a good shower - good air conditioning - and free wifi. Our logon and password are "europe" and "europe." My younger son likes everything "euro" so he would love this hotel.