Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (or more appropriately trains, trains, more trains, and automobiles)

Well, another country down. After taking Switzerland by storm, we once again moved and trained through France on our slow but inexorable way to Paris.
Leaving Gimmelwald for the largish city of Lucerne was a bit of a shock on Thursday, which perhaps made us undervalue what is otherwise a very beautiful city. Lucerne sits on a beautiful lake, is surrounded by mountains and has the orderly, quaint, yet bustling charm that seems to be so unique to Switzerland. Thursday night, we went to an incredible concert by YoYo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in the Lucerne concert hall, which is world renowned for its architecture and almost perfect acoustics. I ignorantly went expecting a classical orchestra concert (YoYo Ma is a famous cello player, after all), but was met by a fusion of classical western European, middle eastern, African, and Asian music that blew me away.
On Friday, Rosalie and I toured some of the old city wall with Kathy, sat on a bench overlooking the city and drank a bottle of wine. In the afternoon, we bid Kathy farewell (Kathy was really only travelling with us as a stop on her way to the Philippines where she is working this fall. Still not quite sure what this work stuff is that she claims is so important, but we really enjoyed her company for the first half of our trip). Then, rather than following the usual philosophy that the fastest way to get from place to place is on direct, high speed trains, Rosalie and I laughed in the face of conventional wisdom and braved the ins and outs of just about every little train station in western Switzerland and eastern France. When we found out on Thursday that there were no available reservations for any TGVs (France’s high speed and apparently highly popular trains) from anywhere near Switzerland to Paris, we embarked on a quaint tour of backwater train stations, questionable connections, and even a train that turned into a bus halfway to its destination. Finally, many hours after leaving Lucerne, we arrived in Paris, where we met Rosalie’s friend Eva, who put us up for the night in her studio apartment.
Saturday, after more wonderful adventures in train hopping, Rosalie, Eva and I visited Reims, a city just east of Paris in the heart of champagne country. The normal routine of touring cathedrals and museums commenced (though we got to climb into the very attics of Reims’ great cathedral and get a view of the city as well as an appreciation for the ingenuity of the cathedral builders. We also managed to fit in a tour of a champagne cellar, which was very impressive (some five kilometers of cellars 12 meters underground cut into great chalk deposits) and of course came with a little champagne tasting (not that this had anything to do with the purely academic curiosity as to the making of sparkling wine that drove us to take the tour).