Reims Attractions

The historic city of Reims (in the English traditional spelling Rheims), the place of coronation of the French kings, the see of a bishop from the fourth century (and now of an archbishop), lies in northern Champagne, some 150km/95mi northeast of Paris on the right bank of the little river Vesle. It owes its fame to its Cathedral, one of the supreme achievements of Gothic architecture.

The city takes its name from a Celtic tribe, the Remi, whose capital it was. Later it became the Roman Durocortorum, one of the most flourishing cities in Gaul and originally more important than Paris. The high standing of the bishops of Reims, enhanced by their role in the conversion of the Franks, earned them in Carolingian times the right to anoint the king, and from 988 to 1825 almost all the kings of France were crowned in Reims. On July 17 1429 Joan of Arc conducted Charles VII into the Cathedral for his anointing.

During the First World War much of Reims, including the Cathedral, was destroyed or badly damaged. The city suffered further damage, though on a lesser scale, during the Second World War, which ended with the German surrender in Reims on May 8 1945.