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Car Hire Metz
The Region and City ...
In long overlooked Lorraine there are hidden gems worth turning up. You call consider the evolution of the Gregorian chant at the municipal museum in Metz, where it was first codified. You will be able to celebrate the brilliancy of Baccarat crystal at its ancient manufacturing plant, and the masterful artistry of Daum glassware in Nancy, where it leapt from the beginnings of Art Nouveau. You can listen to the church bells in which Jeanne d'Arc picked out voices challenging her to relieve the siege of Orleans, and stand on the bruised earth of Verdun. And throughout Lorraine you will discover the statue of the region's patron saint, Saint Nicholas (yes old St. Nick himself) with three children in a saloir (salting tub). Every December 6 Lorraine schoolchildren enact the fable: a greedy butcher slaughters and salts down three children as jambons, but once Saint Nicholas comes by his home for a meal, he finds the cowardly deed and restores them back to life.
Metz is located 66 km (41 miles) due east of Verdun, 53 km (33 miles) north of Nancy, 160 kin (100 miles) north-west of Strasbourg.
In spite of its industrialised background, Metz, the capital of the Moselle region, represents one of France's greenest urban centers with parklands, gardens, and leafy public squares figure an impressive mixture of militaristic and classic architecture, wholly sculpted out of the region's yellow sandstone. At the ancient Town's centre lives one of the finest Gothic cathedrals in France.
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The Muslie d'Art et d'Histoire (Museum of Art and History), two blocks upward from the cathedral in a 17th century former convent, has a varied accumulation of French and German paintings from the 18th century onwards, militaristic weaponry with uniforms and religious works of artistry stashed away in the Grenier de Chevremont, a granary constructed in 1457. Unsurpassed out and away are the stelae, statuary, jewellery, and weaponry arousing the city's Gallo Roman and Merovingian history. Not to be overlooked: the delicate reconstruction of the ancient chapel of St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains. Regrettably, the museum's labyrinth of stairways omits wheelchairs, pushchairs, and hapless navigators. El 2 rue du Haut-Poirier, M 03-87-68-25-00, Open Daily 10-5.
At 137 foot from base to roof, the Cathedrale St-itienne (M Pl. des Armes) is among France's highest and thanks to acres of window space, among the most dazzling. The narrow 13th- to 14th-century nave carries the eye towards the dramatically erected 16th-century choir, whose vast windowpanes have yielded to lavishly colored, gemlike glaze produced by masters old and modern, including artist Marc Chagall. The earliest windows are witnessed along the right rear wall of the transept above the modern-day organ and date from the 12th century; their darkish, mosiac like restraint are very different to the brightness of the new stained glass. A brace of symmetrical 290 foot towers wing the nave, distinguishing the division between the two churches that were united to make the cathedral. The Grand Portal (also known as the large rose window) was restored by the Germans at the beginning of the 20th century the statues of the prophets include Daniel, sculpted to resemble Kaiser Wilhelm II (his unmistakable upturned moustache was shaven in 1940).
The small-scale, heavily restored church of St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains (E Rue Poncelet) bears circular stones and courses of red bricks believed to date from the 4th century, preceding Attila the Hun's sacking of Metz and hence Metz lays claim to the oldest church in France.
But you might prefer to skip over the church itself as the finest of the rare Merovingian dynasty ornaments salvaged from the 6th century version of the chapel are exhibited in a full replica in the Museum of Art and History, showing in-depth how early Christian movements blended the cultures and tastes of Celts, Romans, and Gauls.
Metz Airport or also know as Metz Nancy Lorraine Airport is 16.5 km South East of Metz city.
