Day 6 - Paris to Metz to Forbach to Reims to Bayeux

Hello folks! I'm back, and I'm here with my new partner in crime, the Plucky Pugeot. We picked him up in Metz after taking a (God awful) early train there from Paris. The Plucky Pugeot is actully a really nice car, with a bunch of useful features...including navigation...which makes Handler 1 feel a bit useless with all her maps.



Our plan, once picking up the car was to head to Forbach, a town of great significance to our family. However, first, Handler 2 had an important stop to make in a little village called Hamburg-Haut, at this vending machine.

Bread!

Yes, it's an automatic bread machine. Handler 2 took us out of our way and nearly got us lost on our first day driving in France, for vending mchine baguettes.

Arriving in Forbach, we queried the helpful folks at the tourist office, and eventually found our way to the places we were looking for. Here is the square where Handler 2's grandfather was shot during WWII. In the far background you can see the Schloss (that's castle...in German!).

We traced great-grandhandler John's footsteps all over Forbach, and eventually mde our way up to the ruins on the hill above the town. This is what remains.


After climbing down, we hopped back in PP, drove right past Metz, on our way to Reims.

Our first stop was the mighty cathedral. This was much bigger than Notre Dame, and possibly a bit prettier. It's also famoud for being the site where French kings were trditionally crowned.



As usual, the cathedral was lovely.

We did a little more wandering around Reims, seeing an old Roman arch and some other interesting sites. We tried to get into a champagne house for a tasting, but unfirtunately, they were all clo-

No, forget it, I have to jump in here a moment. I have to g et this off my chest. Champagne, the entire region, is a LIE. It is a lie perpetrated by annoying French-persons who like a good joke. They have the world convinced that champagne (all of it consumed all over the world) comes from this area of France. But here's the conspiracy: There is no champagne in the Champagne region of France. Not a bottle. Not a grape. Handler 2 and I drove all over that region and did not see one, not one, grape vine. Not only that, but all the tasting houses we tried to get into had mysteriously "closed" for the evening. Yeah, right. Just trying to throw us off of the scent. It is our civic duty to make this scandal known to everyone. Throw out your Champagne! Stop being a tool of the wine establishment! Write your-

Okay, okay, that's enough for now. Sorry folks, Handler 1 is a bit touchy that she came all the way to the Champagne region and couldn't even get into a champagne tasting.

Ariving late at our Bayeux hotel, we found out what a difference moving to the county (and an extra paltry 15 eruos a night) makes.

Viva la difference!

Quote of Day 5 (which we remembered):

I like big buttresses and I cannot lie!

Quote of the Day:

Oooooh! - Said in tandem as the Handlers figured out how to change the navigation/audio display panel to English.