Reims 2005

Journey Diary
REIMS

Day 3

From Orleans to Reims

"Good bye Orleans, most wonderful city in the world.
see you soon, until next year, on the day, you celebrate your national pride!"

"Good bye Orleans, most wonderful city in the world.
see you soon, until next year, on the day, you celebrate your national pride and my sweetest angel, St. Joan. Than I will be there, only for my beloved angel..."

Stressed, without sleep and depressed we sat in our car, no, in HIS car, and rattled around on that busy motorway.
No one noticed that the car radio was playing as my father was swearing so loudly because we couldn't find the so-called "shit pissed Reims" or any signs on the motorway.
We just turned about the circle of Paris.

We drove 3 hours in circles, always around and around Paris,
and just before the 4 hour my father listened to me and asked some people for directions.
We finally got the idea after a half hour, to look at the creased and coffee-soaked map!
I don't know any more, how it came, but suddenly there were signs for "REIMS" we were at long last travelling in the right direction!
Now I could even hear the car radio!

After that followed a 3 hour journey to Reims.
In between times we lost our way, and my father had no choice but to bother some petrol attendants.
These guys's were unbelievable!
"Where do you want to go? To Reims? The City where Joan was the crown of the king?! Where my Grandma lives and I used to go to school?! The city which is 200 kilometers away

from here?! No, never heard of it..."

WE GOT IT!!!!

In the meantime my father ran out of swearwords and we just drove just for fun any street below, just looking what is coming next. What is coming? Reims!
Ah forget maps, forget signs, and most of all forget the petrol attendants,
To be praised are the Intuition of sheer nerves!

So we arrived at Reims very late on a Sunday, shouted with joy and spilled the last rest of coffee over the remaining 2 maps, and because it was so funny, we didn't find any

parking lot!
That also took a time of 20 minutes.

As we got lost in the centre, my father was definite split the nut.
He was jabbering to a poor woman with her dog in his bad English!!!

She just pointed in the opposite direction from that we had been travelling for half an hour, so back we went again!

AT LAST!!! We were standing at long last before the big cathedral of Reims, where I wasted my last film.

Near to the cathedral was another equestrian statue of St. Joan.

I took many hundred pictures of her and my father managed to take me away.
What awaited me there surpassed all of beautiful interiors in my whole life!
The cathedral of Reims, what a building!!!
My little church at home could fit inside it 20 times!

Also in that cathedral was a stand, and this time there were a lot of bystanders, how was I to empty that stand, and leave a lot of money!
I finished with buying (with a following look from all people there) I was going at the top. I didn't know where the statue of Joan was, but something was pulling me in the

right direction.
Actually I was at the end of the building, on the left site, standing before an awesome Joan of arc statue...
Oh...she looked so beautiful...

I think I was sitting before her for 30-45 minutes, she was totally overwhelming and stunning...
some people stopped going before me, because they often went around and around, and every time they came back, I was still sitting there
funny!
After my shock we were looked at the rest of the cathedral. My God, such a beautiful cathedral, it's amazing!!!
But I was wriggly all the time, it was hard for to leave even 2 meters from St. Joan.
I had the urge to cry and fling myself to the ground when my dad said the magic words: "Well do you want to sleep here!?!?" and took me by the arm.
And he managed to pull me away, with a heavy heart, away from the cathedral.

Outside again we went into in another souvenir shop (shopping!!!) and went to our car again, it was Sunday, almost nothing was open that day, and we had to go to Cologne.