[lwptoc]
Reims is located 129 kilometers (80 miles) east-northeast of Paris in the Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine region of France. The 2013 census counted 182,592 residents (Rémoises (feminine) and Rémois (masculine)) in Reims itself (the commune), and 317,611 in the metropolitan region.
It was founded by the Gauls and grew to become a prominent metropolis under the Roman Empire. As the traditional location of the crowning of the King of France, Reims played an important ceremonial role in French monarchical history. The Holy Ampulla (Sainte Ampoule) holding the Saint Chrême (chrism), reputedly carried by a white dove (the Holy Spirit) during Clovis’ baptism in 496, was preserved in the Cathedral of Reims (damaged by the Germans during the First World War but rebuilt subsequently). It was used for the anointing, the most crucial element of a French king’s coronation.