Hello from Metz! We arrived here yesterday, actually, we’re staying outside Metz in the village Longeville-lès-Metz. Today we took the opportunity to explore the city and see where we will be staying for the coming week. We will actually be staying here in Longeville-lès-Metz until Sunday. Then we will continue north again. Until then we are looking forward to exploring the area around here. Luxembourg, Germany, and several places in France are close by.
Waking up in Longeville-lès-Metz
As we arrived yesterday and it was a Sunday, all grocery stores were closed. That feels rather strange to us, as shops are open most days in Sweden, no matter if it is Sunday or not. That meant that Jesper took a walk this morning to the closest grocery store to buy breakfast. That was a walk of around 1,5 kilometers and breakfast became lunch. Eventually, we all ate breakfast/brunch/lunch in the apartment. Some yogurt, and a baguette, later we were on our way towards the center of Metz.
Metz: a Walk Along the Fortifications
We parked our car at the Coislin parking lot in the center of Metz and we started a long walk at once in the heat of the day. Our first stop was the Porte des Allemands. The Porte des Allemands consists of a city gate and bridge. It is located at the river La Sielle, and it was built in two rounds, in the 13th and 15th century. Following the river La Sielle north, there are further fortifications along the riverbank. Eventually, La Sielle meets up with the Moselle river and that was where we continued back towards the city center.
Little A was happy and asleep during most of the walk. It was first when we reached the cathedral that she woke up. Waking up usually means food. We had a while to admire the cathedral, a rather grand building. As all three of us were hungry we quickly moved on and found a small Lebanese restaurant.
Our walk then continued along the streets in the center enjoying the views and the atmosphere. There is a maze of streets in this city and we will probably be back, later on, this week to explore this nice city some more.
Metz: What We Learned
We had heard about Metz before but still had to read up about its rich history on Wikipedia. Two parts of its history caught our eyes. The first interesting fact is that it used to be a free imperial city – The Messin Republic – from the end of the 12th century to 1552. That year it became a part of the Kingdom of France.
The second point is that the city was one of the areas that France lost at the peace treaty in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War. Germany annexed the city, as well as parts of the regions of Alsace and Lorraine. It was not until the end of the first world war that France regained these regions.
We will see where we go tomorrow. There are so many options and we have not yet decided exactly where to go. One likely possibility is Trier in Germany, but we will probably have to wait and see where tomorrow takes us. The adventure will continue, that is for sure.
Join us on the road through Europe here!
Reading this post makes me visit Metz immediately. Thanks for sharing, Susann.