Reims today
A new museum for Reims
Reims’ Museum of Fine Arts can boast one of the most prestigious collections in France for a regional museum with works dating from the 15th to the 20th century ranging from painting to sculptures and pieces of furniture. First assembled in 1794 from works of art confiscated by the Revolution, the collection was vastly enriched by donations from private and public sponsors. The museum is located in the palace of the former St Denis abbey, a building now much too small for the treasures it holds.
Paintings by Cranach the Old and the Young, David’s Death of Marat and paintings by Poussin, Courbet, Delacroix, Corot, Gauguin, Monet or Matisse are badly in need of a new home. The most important private donation was made by Henry Vasnier, the former manager of the Pommery champagne house, who wanted his hometown museum to be built on the Boulingrin square. A century later, his wish is about to be fulfilled as the city council agreed to spend 50 million euros to build a new museum by 2013.
Reims : the story
Reims and gymnastics
Sport in Reims is often reduced to the golden era of Stade de Reims when the local soccer team ruled in France and in Europe. Yet the sporting spirit is more deeply rooted in the city than is commonly thought. In 1907, marquis Melchior de Polignac, a close friend of Pierre de Coubertin who owned the Pommery champagne house, funded the creation of a sports park to be conceived and built by architect Edouard Redont: 50 acres of land were devoted to the practice of sport and games. It was a unique institution in Europe at the time and sport officials from everywhere came to Reims to visit the Pommery Park (known nowadays as the Parc de Champagne) and its athletes college. Polignac asked navy officer Georges Hebert to test his “natural method” of training in the Reims college. Hebertism, as it is now called, became the almost official doctrine of sports training in France for decades. A real school for sports teachers and coaches was born and played a major part in French sport until WW2 when it was dismantled. In 1937, Reims became the first town to top L’Equipe’s yearly poll of France’s sporting cities.
Polignac was a member of the IOC from 1914 to his death in 1951. Reims remains a haven for top athletes. It is the hometown of former long jump and heptahlon world champion Eunice Barber and walk world champion Yoann Diniz.
Reims and cycling
Champagne for Elsy
Reims hosted ten Tour de France stages and two road world championships, crowning Theo Middelkamp in 1947 and Ercole Baldini in 1958. But few remember that the town of kings awarded the first ever women’s world crown in 1958. And the inaugural world championship went to Luxembourg’s Elsy Jacobs. Three years later, the Grand Duchy cycling star again won bronze at the worlds in Bern. She also earned a silver medal on track in the pursuit event in 1959. To Luxembourg what Jeannie Longo is to France, Elsy Jacobs won all national titles between 1959 and 1974. She died in 1998. Since 2008, the Elsy Jacobs Grand Prix is held in her memory.
Reims : places to see
THE CATHEDRAL
Reims Notre-Dame cathedral was completed in the 14th century when it was broadened to allow attendances to coronations inside. It is considered one of the major realisations of gothic art as well for its architecture as for its ornaments which include as many as 2,303 statues. It has been a World Heritage Site since 1991. The most visited monument in Reims, it attracted 1.5 million visitors in 2007.
ST REMI BASILICA
After the cathedral, which it almost matches in size, St Remi basilica is the most famous church in Reims. Built between the 11th and 15th century to hold the remains of St Remi, the first bishop of Reims, it was for long linked to an abbey. It celebrated its millennium in 2007.
