Reims - Porte Mars & Roman Arch

Reims's Porte de Mars, Read Vault by Vault

In the 10th century the Reims historian Flodoard described this gate: the she-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus under the right-hand vault as you leave the city, the twelve months of the Roman calendar in the middle one. Seven of those months survive, among them the pressing of grapes. Reims's heritage service calls the arch, 32.4 m long, the largest known arch of the Roman world. In 1853 Prosper Mérimée wrote that the town council would rather it fell, and that he was told one word from Madame Clicquot, "queen of Reims", would save it. You can find the she-wolf and the grape pressing, sort Roman stone from restorers' stone, then taste growers' champagne 231 m away.