Day 29, Reims, Metz

The day started fantastic, I slept in a beautiful apartment on the top floor of the Hotel Bristol in Reims. But only actually. Barely opened my eyes, deafening noise: FIRE ALARM! After a brief moment of shock, we packed up everything important, jumped into our clothes and ran down the 6 floors. On the way to the reception, there was actually smoke on 2 floors. When we arrived downstairs, there was no information, so we got ourselves a coffee and tried to wake up properly (still with the annoying fire alarm beeping). After half an hour, it was over and we were allowed back to the room, without the elevator of course, it was still out of order.

After that, we went to the Christmas market again, because we wanted to see the cathedral and especially because the raclette sandwiches were super delicious. We also secretly got two champagne glasses.

Next stop for today and last stop for our road trip is Metz. Playlist for the last stretch: December Dreams and Christmas Rock.

In Metz, there are many smaller Christmas markets spread throughout the city center. There is a Ferris wheel (60 meters high, as high as the cathedral roof, which we of course tried), an ice rink (which we preferred not to try), many food stalls and delicious mulled wine (frog legs, churros, foie gras flatbread, potato waffles, red and white wine sometimes with Mirabelle, of course we tried plenty). We also found a 'Lantern Park'. There were glowing hearts, candy canes, gifts, gingerbread men, reindeer, Santa Claus and Santa's helpers. It was like being in Santa's workshop and truly beautiful for both children and adults.