Day trip- Paris to Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint Avold

Be sure to check the hours and lunch hours of the rental office you choose.

Metz has a branch of the Pompidou Museum, whose Paris base might ? be closed for several years. I haven't been to Metz.

This seems long and tedious to me. I would put it off to an Alsace trip, with a car rental after seeing Strasbourg in foot.

I’ve been to St Avold Cemetery multiple times. (lived in Germany) Well worth the visit even if there’s no family connection. I know someone will chime in but there’s not too much to see or do in the immediate vicinity. I used to drive over to a Carrefour not far from the cemetery for a great selection of French wine.

You might be best served by making your visit and go back to spend a few hours in Metz, which is worth the time. Keep track of rental car agencies operating hours.

If I were doing a day trip to St Avold from Paris, I would take the TGV from Paris Est to Metz, then take the next regional train to St Avold.

That regional train is ca. 30 mins or so. Time all this correctly and you can be in St Avold by noon or shortly before. You'll have the rest of the afternoon before returning to Paris. When visiting Metz, I normally stayed there. Taking the TGV Paris to Strasbourg, I've done as day trip.

Your day trip there from is very doable. No need for a rental car.

Just a note to contact the Cemetery staff (via email address or phone number found on their section of the ABMC website) prior to your trip. They will make sure you can find your relative, and may even provide charcoal and a paper so that you can do a grave rubbing. They did this for us a few years ago when we went to the Oise-Aisne cemetery to visit the grave of my mother’s great-uncle. It really made the trip special, and they seemed really happy to provide the personal touch.

(Come to think of it, they may have a recommendation too on a taxi from the St Avold train station if you end up following that advice.)

Here’s the contact page for the Lorraine cemetery (there’s also a section on directions, and indeed it advises taking the train to St Avold itself).

https://www.abmc.gov/Lorraine

https://www.abmc.gov/Lorraine#directions-heading

They give a (French) phone number, then there’s a general email address [email protected] . I’m sure whoever receives those emails farms them out to the correct cemetery staff.

Enjoy your visit, it’s a really special thing to do.

If I were doing a day trip to St Avold from Paris, I would take the TGV from Paris Est to Metz, then take the next regional train to St Avold.

If you do that, which is a good idea, you have to investigate the local transportation options in St Avold, because the station is out of town. The contact page mentioned above can probably help.

Thanks for the information....very good to know.