Everyday life in Reims

Reims is a much smaller town that what I imagined, but it is a nice place to live. The bus and tram transportation is excellent here, so you never really have a problem getting to where you need to go, assuming it is before about midnight. If you are going to stay out later at one of the bars or clubs, nothing is so far away that you cannot walk home.

During the week, things are pretty slow. I will go to class with my friends, have lunch with them, and then go to the gym with the few who want to go (Europeans are not as in to working out as Americans are!) Since the gym at RMS is terrible, we pay 30 Euros a month to go to a different gym called l'orange bleue. It is small, but it has nice machines and group classes which are fun. Then we either go shopping downtown, go to the grocery store, get some dinner, or just go back to our places if there is nothing going on that night. All in all, the town is pretty quiet during the week.

We will usually get dinner together once a week at one of the restaurants down town, and there are a lot of great ones to try! That is probably the best thing France has going for it actually--the food. Everything I have tried here has been excellent (which explains the need for a gym membership!). I must say the bread, cheese, desserts, and champagne are some of my favorite things about living here :)

We will usually go out on a Friday or Saturday night (or Thursday is actually the best night to go out if there is no class on Friday) to the main section of town (there is only one so it is impossible to miss). A big group of us will go to one of the bars or clubs there. We created a Facebook group for just us exchange students, so if there is anything going on or anyone wants to do something, they just write it in the group. There are plenty of other young adults out as well, and the town becomes pretty lively.

Other than hanging out downtown with friends, there really isn't that much to do here after you have seen all the touristy stuff, like the champagne houses and churches. I think the best part is actually the proximity to other great places to travel to. You can take the train over the weekend to a variety of other places within France, or you can take cheap flights (check Ryanair or Easyjet) to other places in Europe. I would recommend setting up as many trips as you can while you are here, since there are endless possibilities here and it is pretty cheap if you just stay in a hostle or couch surf. Sometimes they are even arranged for you by BDI, the student association group here. Even if you just want to take a day trip to Paris, you can do that for about 24 Euros round trip (if you buy the 12-25 card for the train, which I would recommend doing), and it only takes you 45 minutes by train.

Basically, just make friends and be social, then you won't get bored!