I may not be doing a proper search, but I haven’t come across much from the RS crowd for Nancy.
Has anyone spend a few nights in Nancy?
Should I depend on trains in that area or am I better off with a car? Love exploring, hiking, long walks, museums, old cities.
I spent 3 nights (I think) in Nancy back in 2017. I wanted to see the Art Nouveau museum and the A.N. architecture. At that time the local tourist office had a little brochure identifying some of the A.N. buildings. I searched them out on foot and fairly often encountered unlisted places along the way. It was a lot of fun.
I haven't been to Metz or any of the smaller towns in the area, so I can't comment on the transportation situation. However, I spent more than one full day wandering around Nancy and was short on time at the museum.
Maybe not the best rationale, but I didn’t find anything of interest to me in Nancy so picked Metz for its Templars church and it location in relation to Verdun. We will have a rental car n the trip.
The city square in Nancy is particularly large and beautiful. We were tracing my father’s WWII history which includes an award for liberating Nancy.
The last time in Metz was in 2007, most likely will be back there this summer especially if the protests and strikes continue, the government not yielding. I would suggest staying in Metz , plus doing a day trip to Nancy. I've not visited Nancy.
Metz is an old city, the remnants of the ramparts attest to that. The city's highly strategic location in Lorraine caused it to be fought over in 1870, 1918, 1944 , not to mention in the 18th century. Should you be interested in the outlying villages, the French and Prussian-German military cemeteries are located west of the city in the village of Gravelotte. Those were the ones I went to see in 1999.
"...or am I better off with a car?" Get the rental car so that you can track these villages fought over in the wars, you'll have the flexibility accessing them.
Being an Art Nouveau fan, I loved Nancy. In addition to the Musee de l’Ecole de Nancy, there is a museum of local history to be visited, and of course, the beautiful Stanislas Square. There is a historic restaurant located in an Art Nouveau venue where we had a not too expensive nice meal. The city is great for just some wandering around to enjoy its ambience.
The Nancy tourist office had 2 audio tours available when we were there last fall; architecture (art nouveau) and history. Pretty good. Otherwise, a nice city to spend a day or so in, not a lot of tourists. In fact, if not for wandering about on the same track holding an audio guide or a few small group tours I'd say they're unnoticable.
Hi Ginger, we just traveled by train. This is the summary of Nancy from our trip in 2019:
NANCY: Place Stanislas is regal and beautiful! We stayed at Le Relais Ducal, an apartment in the historic area which was a spacious 2-level attic apartment in a historic building near the Porte de la Craffe, the 14th century gate that looks like a Cinderella castle.
The elegant Place Stanislas reminded us of Vienna, and we enjoyed relaxing there and eating dinner there our last evening. I have to give their Fine Arts Museum a mixed review. I really wanted to see their collection of Daum glass, but that section of the museum was closed because of an electrical issue. This information was not shared when I purchased the ticket.
We stopped at a pastry shop our first day which was excellent. But when we stopped the next morning at the pastry shop mentioned in the notebook of information our apartment owner had left us – wow! I’m still thinking about it! I read reviews on-line about Cadici afterwards, and they’re all true! Since there was a nice park nearby, we enjoyed having our coffee in the apartment each morning and then selecting some Cadici pastries to enjoy in the park’s rose garden.
Nancy is the Art Nouveau capital of France. We stopped into the Tourist Office in Nancy to pick up their map of neighborhoods with art nouveau. It was a fun afternoon adventure activity both days, plus gaining lots of walking steps. For anyone who enjoys taking photos of unique doors, well...my husband teased me about taking so many photos, so I took a few extra ones!
The Light Show (at night) at Nancy was spectacular since they utilize three of the four sides of Place Stanislas Square to give a “surround sound” feeling. Topics highlighted their opera, ballet, art nouveau among others. We were glad to have a chance to see it more than one night.
Nancy was another location where I definitely used my French vocabulary. Both of us noticed how friendly people were in this town! Older people we would meet in the park or on the street would greet us; Nancy had a small-town community feeling in a larger city.
We spent a week in Nancy in 2018 , and since I can't add anything to the descriptions above , I would just echo Jean's comments . We did like the Fine Arts museum quite a bit , and the collection of Daum Glasswork was quite extensive and really beautiful .
Metz has been a ping-pong ball in the French-German historical contest over the natural resources of Alsace Loraine. Given that history, plus its proximity to Belgium, makes it one of the best places in France to drink beer. The train station, built by Germany, is a landmark, along with a handsome cathedral and some local museums. The most spectacular attraction, depending on your taste, is the ultra-modern Pompidou-Metz, a branch of the Paris museum devoted to contemporary (or, for conservatives, far-out) art.
Here are tourist-guide photos:
https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-metz-france/
Thank you all for the recommendations. Jean, thank you for the additional information. I can’t wait to try some of the pastry you mentioned.
Does anyone know if it’s easy to take public transport out to Metz for a day? Do I need a car?
From Nancy to Metz? There are frequent regional trains connecting the two cities, most taking 40 to 50 minutes.
