Nancy, Verdun, and Reims

Friday March 27^th-Sunday March 29^th:

Voila. As our semester continues, we continue to learn, travel and experience, but somewhat separately. This weekend was a fantastic opportunity to reunite with the rest of the group, relax and let someone else take care of the transportation.

We boarded the purple bus with butterflies, and greeted our bus driver “Pierre” (who is probably one of the only obese French people I have seen.) After a couple of hours we arrive in Nancy, a little village in the Loraine region. We then take a tour of the beautiful city in French. We stayed in a Hotel Ibis that evening, and had a group dinner. There was a slight mishap with my meal, they had made it Gluten Free but smothered it in cream and cheese. (But luckily Professor Bach and Marxer were there to help.) I eventually got something to eat, and fortunately some friends stayed until I was able to eat! Afterwards we walked back into the center of town, to see some of the sights at night. It was lovely to see some of the golden statues and light stone fountains lit up. We then meandered into a bar, and had a drink while chatting with each other, then retired for the night.

The next day we drove to Verdun-the famous WWI battle scene. This was a strange and moving monument to war and its destruction. The battle was fought by trench warfare, which is incredibly bloody. Besides wounds, many died of the diseases spread by the unsanitary conditions. The main memorial is a large stone hall with names of the soldiers killed in this battle. Underneath this building one can look through a screen and see the bones of the unknown soldiers recovered. On our way out we stopped by a village that was completely destroyed during the war. It is covered with grass craters, made by some of the millions of shells dropped during the battle. We walked through the woods, seeing signs for a street that no longer existed. It was strangely beautiful, a symbol of recovery, but still a warning to the destructive power of war.

We drove the rest of the way to Champagne, and stayed in a hostel that night. My friends and I decided to picnic in the room, enjoying crackers, spreads, apples, wine and each other’s company. The next day we headed to the famous Tattinger cellars in Reims, for a tour and champagne tasting at 10:30 that morning. Although it may seem like a strange time to taste champagne, a tour of this cellar is highly coveted so we took whatever timeslot we could get. This cellar is still a working cellar, with the machinery and bottles of the world famous champagne (in various stages of the aging process) all over this ancient cellar. This cellar, which used to be a monastery, was well kept up and quite far underground. At the end of the tour, we tasted the champagne-which was bubbly, dry and delicious. It was quite distinctive, with almost a sense of thyme. Slightly subdued, our group boarded the bus. We took the scenic route back to Strasbourg, enjoying the final hours of our group trip, and bonding time.