6 corners of the Hexagon: Lorraine

The weather was pretty lousy during our last few days in Niederbronn, which was just as well as we needed to pack and clean the apartment before heading out.
Our next destination was the region of Lorraine, which has two important cities: Nancy, which we’d never visited before, and Metz, which we had. We spent two nights in each – not nearly enough.

Nancy, FranceThe heart of Nancy is the beautiful gold-and-black trimmed Place Stanislas, named for Stanislaw Leszczynski, the deposed Polish king who became Duke of Lorraine and created this royal square. Other points of interest are the Saint-Epvre Basilica, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Annonciation, numerous gardens, and various museums.

We also visited nearby Toul and tasted the famous Gris de Toul, a type of rosé wine found only in this area. We were very surprised at how much weaker Lorraine wine is than its neighboring Alsace’s – the food in the two regions is very similar, but the wine couldn’t be more different.

Centre Pompidou, Metz, FranceMetz has a reputation as a dirty, industrial city, but in fact it is very beautiful and full of flowers, and the cathedral is stunning. We’d already gotten a good taste of Metz during our visit in 2008; we went this time solely to visit the brand-new Pompidou museum (Centre Pompidou-Metz), which I’d been dying to see since I first read about the construction plans about 7 years ago. I wasn’t disappointed – it’s an amazing building.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

Topics: Art + Architecture, France
 

One thought on “6 corners of the Hexagon: Lorraine

  1. minimino says:

    My wife & I had the pleasure of visiting the same two cities 20 years ago, having given up the vain search for a relative who, it turned out had been moved to a retirement community and died there shortly thereafter.

    In our view, Nancy was something like the Paris of Eastern France. The Museum of Modern Art didn’t have great holdings, but the staircase of the art-nouveau museum was stunning. We are picnic-ers and don’t often go to restaurants. But the one meal we had in an old restaurant was fairly good.

    Metz was, as it was for you, a pleasant surprise. As a student in the late 50s, I had driven through it numerous times between Frankfurt and Paris. What a pleasure 20 years ago to see it had risen so far. Yes, the cathedral was stunningly impressive. Those windows by Chagall!! Alas, we didn’t eat or drink local wines there, but I’ve made a note of what you’ve written about the rose’ wine and will try it if ever back in Metz.

    “Minimino”

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