Articles > A Tale of Two Cities

Take two French cities, just 35 miles apart, barely 1½ hours from Paris by high speed train, and you have the perfect short break. Sharing the spotlight at the heart of Lorraine, Nancy and Metz are equally fascinating yet totally different.

City of the Golden Gates

Nancy is a bustling city with a rich but fairly short history, keen on culture, especially avant-garde, shopping and good food. It owes its most grandiose buildings to Stanislas, a deposed Polish king who ruled Lorraine in the 18th-century. On the marshlands between the old and new districts, he created a royal city to honour the French king who gave him refuge and leased him his latest possession. Today the ‘Ville Royale’ includes three World Heritage sites, the quiet Alliance Square, the Place Carrière leading to the governor’s palace and most fabulous of all, Stanislas Square, a showcase of classical elegance with fountains and wrought iron gates covered in gold leaf. It’s a place to relax on a café-terrace before heading for the Opera or popping into the Fine Arts Museum to gaze at paintings and the Art Nouveau crystal collection exhibited in the basement.

Nancy was the birthplace of French Art Nouveau, a new style of art which in the early 1900s imitated the graceful lines of foliage and flowers in architecture, painting, furniture, glassware and even fashion. Later this evolved into Art Deco, with simpler shapes and straighter lines. The Nancy School Museum is the ideal venue to appreciate the skills of these multi-talented artists but as you wander through the Saurupt or commercial districts, you’re sure to spot a half-moon window, an intricate canopy or a floral frieze on a wall.

Nancy has seven museums, devoted to arts and other topics. The Museum Aquarium and its research centre display marine life from all over the world, the Musée de l’Histoire du Fer covers 4000 years of iron production, once the hallmark of Lorraine, while the Montet Botanical Gardens claim a ‘living museum’ with 12 000 plants. For local history, see the Musée Lorrain, housed in the Ducal Palace, where exhibits range from scenes of daily life to Gallo-Roman remains and medieval religious sculptures. The adjoining Cordeliers chapel is the resting place of the dukes who governed Lorraine until 1737.

Shopping? Nancy has more temptations than you could indulge in a week but save a little time to stroll along the canal, discover the Pépinière park and explore the old town meandering to the medieval gate, past rue des Maréchaux, nicknamed rue gourmande (greedy street) for its string of cosy restaurants, catering for all budgets and tastes, just minutes from Stanislas Square.

Flowers, water and plums

Metz is a relaxed homely sort of place, celebrating a heritage which goes back to pre-Roman times while looking to the future, with its own Pompidou Centre (art gallery) due to open in 2009, and enjoying the present to the full. When the people of Metz talk of floral displays, they mean it. Visit in summer and every bridge, park and riverside walk is covered in blooms while one of the town squares plays host to an astonishing ‘carpet of flowers’. Under sunny skies or in the gold and silver light of evening, it takes your breath away.

Summer also brings the Fête de la Mirabelle, the sweet golden plums growing in neighbouring orchards. Enjoy them fresh, in fruit tarts, jam, or liqueur if you dare, and you’ll understand why at harvest time, the city celebrates these golden plums in a special festival.

But Metz is delightful whatever the season. Lapped by myriad waterways, it’s the ‘little Venice’ of eastern France, all islands and weirs where the sound of rushing water fills the air. There are nearly 20 miles of waterside trails, from tree-lined promenades along the Moselle and the Seille to the Jouy canal, dotted with pleasure crafts and house boats, barges and swans. You can walk to the Roman aqueduct out in the country or go on a cruise in the shadow of St Quentin’s hill.

In recent decades, the town has worked wonders with its past. Candy-coloured post office, cathedral-like station, imperial palace, the legacy of German rule (1870-1918), is preserved as part of its heritage, alongside the old buildings lovingly restored and put to good use. Look out for the concert hall in the former arsenal or the museum in the old grain stores.

Strolling around town will bring a surprise or two, here St Pierre aux Nonnains, the oldest church in France, there remains of the ramparts or the massive gateway of Porte des Allemands, but highlights must be Comédie Square and its elegant honey-coloured buildings mirrored in the river and St Stephen’s cathedral keeping watch over the old cobbled town on the hill. Topped by a Gothic spire, it’s a flamboyant display of sculptures and stained glass covering nearly 65 000ft².

If you enjoy food, you are in the right place for Rabelais, one of the greatest food lovers of all times, lived in Metz and no one here is prepared to forget it. Follow the Rabelais trail and you will feast on hearty local fare, quiches, pies, venison, cheeses and hams, and delicious Mirabelle plums, in whichever way you fancy.

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