Metz France
Frequently Asked Questions
At the marina on the Saulcy basin, at the foot of the Esplanade and right in the centre. You step ashore among the swans, and a few minutes bring you to the pedestrian streets.
Because of Jaumont limestone, quarried a few kilometres from the city, which gives that honey tone catching fire at sunset. The city has cultivated this light for two thousand years.
Saint-Étienne cathedral and its stained glass, Place Saint-Louis and the Porte des Allemands. The Centre Pompidou-Metz and the imperial quarter need a full day to be added to the rest.
Because it holds the largest area of stained glass in France, close to six thousand five hundred square metres, spanning seven centuries of glass art. It rises more than forty metres under the vault.
Yes, in the ambulatory of Saint-Étienne cathedral, where his incandescent blues sit alongside medieval masters. You come in for the architecture and stay for the light, which shifts by the hour.
It is a legendary dragon whose suspended effigy once terrified the children of Metz. It now sleeps in the cathedral crypt.
Because the city was annexed by Germany between 1871 and 1918 and was given an entire imperial district: broad avenues, Wilhelmine buildings and a monumental 1908 station, regularly voted the most beautiful in France.
It is the Lorraine outpost of the great Paris museum, opened in 2010, showing modern art under an undulating roof of woven wood shaped like a Chinese hat. It stands on the station side of the city.
Place Saint-Louis and its merchants' arcades, minutes from the cathedral, and the Porte des Allemands, a bridge-castle bristling with towers that has guarded the eastern entrance since the 13th century.
Mirabelle plum in every form — tart, eau-de-vie or jam — on the terraces of Place Saint-Jacques. The covered market, set in a bishop's palace never lived in, serves Lorraine quiches and cheeses.
