On to another fine Metz (pronounced, “Mess”)

Here we are on Sunday morning and I’m finally getting around to writing about our travels to Metz. Woke up this morning to the unusual sound of “Eye of the Tiger” being played outside. Listened a little closer and realized this was karaoke, it became obvious with just a few notes from the singer. Collette pointed out that there was a fun run going on so the karaoke must be to inspire the runners, either to get away or celebrate the end of the run! I’m going to take a break here and get an Advil before continuing.

Back again. Final version of New York, New York has stopped and the runners have all left. You know singing karaoke is fine if its late and mass volumes of alcohol have been consumed, but first thing Sunday morning? Why aren’t these people in church? Guess they have a little more to add to confession this week!

Back to the journey. After a week of the big city of Lyon, off to Metz. Metz is a small town with a population of around 102,000 and is located in the Northeastern part of France. The drive from Lyon is about 6hrs and goes through grazing lands, a change from crop farming we’ve seen so far.  Metz has an interesting past. For centuries this small little town in Alsace-Lorraine has gone from being ruled by the French, to the Prussians, to the French, to the Germans and back to French again. For more than 3,000 years Metz has been the home to many tribes and cultures. There is evidence that as early as the 1st-2nd century BC, Metz was a Celtic oppidum, then later a Gallo-Roman city, then Merovingian capital of the Austrasia Kingdom (6th-7th century AD) and a bunch more. Lots going on and a wealth of interesting history but I’ll leave that for you to read.

French Army patrol. We’ve seen these guys everywhere!

Abraham de Fabert, Marshal of France

Our flat here is located in the center part of town across from the Cathedral de Metz, also known as St. Etienne Cathedral and/or St. Stephen Cathedral. Noteworthy of this cathedral, it contains the largest expanse of stained glass in the world!  We found parking there and was fortunate enough to buy a discount ticket for the week. Daily rate is 14EU while a week pass is only 42EU, one time good deal for you, my friend. The flat is less than 5 minutes walk from parking through a courtyard that is an open market on Saturday mornings.

We chose Metz because of it’s proximity to several major sites we wanted to visit, Schoenenbourg fort and the Maginot Line, Bastogne and the Ardennes forest, and Luxemburg city. All are within 1-2hrs drive on major roads. Plus we have a full week here so there’s plenty of time for us to relax and tryout the several hundred bolangeries and pastry shops.

We rented a large, one bedroom flat on the 3rd floor of an office building so evenings and weekends are very quiet. The view isn’t the greatest but we are in the city so you can’t expect too much. Very clean and very comfortable, just what we wanted.

Tomorrow we drive to Schoenenbourg fort and the Maginot Line.  More to follow……..