Few companies can claim to be headquartered in a thousand-year-old monastery. In Mettlach, the offices of Villeroy & Boch have occupied the long Baroque buildings of a former Benedictine monastery since 1809, set between the Saar and the forest. The village grew up around this unlikely alliance between long-gone monks and the art of the table, and boats stopping on the Saar land their passengers steps from the complex. The stop adds a second face, a natural one this time: the Saarschleife, the great loop of the Saar, can be admired from the heights of the municipality.

The Abbey of Tableware

The visit begins with the former abbey, whose façade is reflected in the river. Villeroy & Boch tells more than two centuries of ceramics history in its permanent exhibition: hand-painted dinner services, monumental earthenware, tiles that have adorned buildings on every continent. The historic halls recreate the atmosphere of the manufactory's heyday, and the park surrounding the buildings lends itself to a stroll among century-old trees and well-kept flower beds. Bargain hunters head straight for the neighbouring factory outlet, where the house's porcelain is sold at gentle prices.

A Tower From the 10th Century

In the abbey park stands the site's oldest witness: the Alter Turm, an octagonal funerary tower built around the year 990, one of the oldest religious buildings in the region. Its russet stones, pierced by simple arcades, have seen the Romanesque abbey, the Baroque reconstruction and then the manufactory's kilns. The contrast sums up Mettlach at a glance: a thousand years of history stacked on the banks of a river that has never stopped working.

The Loop Seen From the Treetops

The flagship excursion of this stop climbs to Orscholz, on the plateau, where the Saar makes its most famous bend. From the Cloef lookout, the river coils 180 m below around an entirely wooded spur, in a silence broken only by birds. A 1,250 m wooden walkway winds through the treetops, up to 23 m above the ground, and ends at a lookout tower overlooking the canopy. The route, accessible to strollers as well as cautious walkers, turns a simple viewpoint into an aerial walk.

The Village, From One Quay to the Other

Back by the water, Mettlach can be explored at leisure: a few streets of tidy houses, cafés around the monastery buildings, and the Saar Cycle Path running toward Merzig on one side and the Moselle on the other. Local excursion boats offer short cruises in season, giving a foretaste of the Saarschleife passage by water. The calm, tree-lined banks invite one last stroll before setting sail.

Port Essentials

• River stop in the centre of the village, within walking distance of the former monastery and the Villeroy & Boch exhibition.
• Factory outlet: adjoining the site.
• Alter Turm: 10th-century octagonal tower in the abbey park.
• Cloef and treetop walkway: in Orscholz, on an excursion or by taxi; a 1,250 m elevated route.
• Saar Cycle Path leaving directly from the village.

Before Heading Back on Board

There is often time to sit by the water, where the Baroque façade is mirrored in its green reflection. Within a few hundred metres, Mettlach brings together what is most remarkable about the Saar valley: a global company in a monastery, a tower from the year 1000 in a garden, and a river about to draw, just downstream, one of the most beautiful curves in Europe. You weigh anchor feeling you have leafed through a book whose last page, the loop itself, will be read from the deck.