Reims, Cathedral, Outside

In 1211, Archbishop Humbert laid the first stone of what became the present Cathedral of Notre Dame. Joan of Arc had her King Charles VII crowned here in 1429. The Reims Cathedral, like the Notre Dames of Paris and Amiens, has two towers without spires, a huge rose window, and three portals. Reims has a smaller rose window, just above the center doors.

At the end of WW I, the Cathedral was in ruins. Restoration was financed by John Rockefeller, and the street right in front, is named Rue Rockefeller. One group of stained glass windows was fashioned, since WW II, by the artist, Marc Chagall.

The sign on the Bibliothéque Municipale De Rheims, right next to the cathedral, says 'Carnegie Library,' one of the 2,509 libraries built by Andrew Carnegie. The bus stop in front of the Library is the Carnegie bus stop.

One year while Emmy's cousins Hugo and Maria were traveling with us, we parked a few doors from the front of this beautiful Cathedral, and ate our lunch with this magnificent view out our dining window.

If you don't have an RV handy, at the first cross street in front of the Cathedral, just look to your left (as you face the Cathedral), and there's the Golden Arches, complete with clean restrooms.