A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of FranceVizetelly, Henry
History
A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of France
Vizetelly, Henry
Champagne (Wine) -- History; Wine and wine making -- France
At the corner of this street, and abutting on the Place des Marchés,
is a curious old house, the overhanging upper stories of which are
supported by huge massive carved brackets, decorated with figures
more or less quaint in design. M. Louis Roederer's offices in the
Rue des Elus are at the farther end of a courtyard, beyond which is
found a second court, where carts laden with cases of Champagne seem
to indicate that some portion of the shipping business of the house
is here carried on. Several requests made by us for permission to
visit M. Louis Roederer's establishments having been refused, it is
only of their external appearance that we are competent to speak. One
of them, in the Boulevard du Temple, is distinguished by a rather
imposing façade, and has a carved head of Bacchus surmounting its
_porte-cochère_; while the principal establishment, a picturesque range
of buildings of considerable extent, is situated in the neighbouring
Rue de la Justice.
[Illustration: OLD HOUSE AT THE CORNER OF THE RUE DES ÉLUS AND THE
PLACE DES MARCHÉS, REIMS.]
Leading from the Rue des Elus into the Rue de Vesle is a gloomy-looking
ancient street known as the Rue des Deux Anges, all the houses of which
have their windows secured by iron gratings, and their massive doors
thickly studded with huge nails. These prison-like façades, which in
all probability refer to the epoch of the religious wars, succeed each
other in lugubrious monotony along either side of the way; but gain
admittance to their inner courts, and quite a different scene presents
itself. In one notable instance, looking on to a pleasant little
flower-garden, we found a small but charming Renaissance house, with
its windows ornamented with elaborate mouldings, and surmounted by
graceful sculptured heads, while at one corner there rose up a tower
with a sun-dial displayed on its front. In this and in an adjoining
house the canons of the cathedral were accustomed to reside in the days
when something like four-fifths of the city were the property of the
Church.
[Illustration: RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE RUE DES DEUX ANGES, REIMS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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