We have loved visiting Metz. It is a charming place with picturesque cobbled streets and narrow alleys with cafes and shops, historic buildings and an interesting history. We have stayed overnight and will do a bit more exploring before we head on to Nancy today.
We have not stayed at a Campanile Hotel before. We liked this French chain of hotels and will try another when we can. A relaxing, comfortable place to stay with an excellent breakfast….fresh crepes with Canadian maple syrup 👍, the best bread so far, yummy eggs, etc.
The Metz train station is a Neo-Romanesque building from 1908, built by German architects. It is rated as the most beautiful train station in France. In marked contrast to the yellow limestone primarily used in Metz, the train station is built with pale grey stone. Because of the swampy soil of the area, the station is built on over 3,000 foundation piles made from reinforced concrete which had been recently invented by a French engineer.
A landmark in Metz is Saint Etienne Cathedral which is dedicated to Saint Stephen. Construction began in the early 12th century. It displays the largest expanse of stained glass in the world and has been nicknamed the Good Lord’s Lantern as a result. Imagine, there is over 70,000 sq feet of stained glass in this cathedral. It is beautiful. Of special note for Mary Ellen was to see the glasswork by Marc Chagall from 1961 through 1967 and Jacques Villon.
In May 1877, fireworks which were shot off from the roof of the Cathedral in honour of German Emperor William II, which caused a fire. This completely destroyed the roof and its wooden framework.
Construction for this cathedral began in 1220 and was completed in 1552. The Nave is the third highest in France, 120 feet from the ground, after Beauvais and Amiens. The philosophy behind the design of its tall structure, narrowing to encompass the beautiful stained glass, was to draw your eyes up to the light shining through the stained glass windows . I found this to be true and watched others being affected in the same way. Having enjoyed doing stained glass for years, I spent much time just enjoying the beauty of the art of the glass designs. Unfortunately I was unable to photograph Chagall’s work as it was located in the nave and church service made this area inaccessible.. The height of the cathedral is close to the length of a football field but vertical.
One of the many small chapels within the Cathedral. This chapel is the first one you see upon entry on the right. It is known as the Notre-Dame La Ronde Chapel. The glass windows depicts Queen Mary confiding to the Holy Bishops and was depicted by the Mayer factory from Munich near the end of the 19th century.
A modern glass artist, Jacques Villon created this glass window from 1957. I liked the combination of centuries old glass windows with work from the 20th century throughout the Cathedral.
Being Whit Monday, a service was ongoing which restricted access to parts of the church. However, they welcomed visitors to quietly walk through the areas that are available to them. I loved visiting the cathedral accompanied by the rich sounds of the pipe organ.
And now for something completely different and from the present day, or perhaps the future. We liked this bold purple take on a stage coach being pulled by horses.
Wish we hadn’t seen this sign. As it turns out, the other side is at best a rough mountain bike route. We will have to cross over to the other side. Many people are walking or jogging this morning on the pedestrian side
This may not look too bad, but this is where our day has taken a turn,and will become complicated. There are two paths here…a narrow path at the edge of the river…lots of roots and obstacles or this lower area which becomes more muddy as we progress. It could be a bit of dance
Impassable…so we will climb up the slope to the narrow path by the river. Due to conditions, we will more than once navigate between the two paths when one becomes unridable.
So we went down to the lower path again. It was taking some time just to go a km, and it was quite tiring. Not an auspicious start to our day. We have 66 km to go before we reach Nancy where we have booked a room for tonight. Sadly we could see riders on the other side where no cyclists are “allowed”, but we have no way to get over there. So we must carry on.
We were almost defeated by this section as at times it was too narrow for our tandem. Some fiddling and subtle movements got us through. I brought up the rear with the trailer.
So, to summarize…our challenges were heavy deep mud, trees down across the trail, trees hanging low (Barry shouts “duck”), tree roots and big rocks in the middle of the upper riverside trail. It was an inauspicious start to the day and sadly we had to keep going as there was no way to leave the trail. We finally emerged from this route, which we don’t recommend! However, the good news is that we then found this route which should take us to Nancy. It starts well with a paved route….what a relief.
This is our new route and it looks good. It will take us to Nancy.
Barry dubbed this guy the 100 year old cyclist. We passed each other several times throughout the day.He looked very old, but he rode strong with a huge smile on his face and we imagined by the way he rode that he may have had a career in cycling. He rode beautifully. If only we can be this agile in a few years.
Near our hotel is this very popular place called Berlin Kebap House. The food is incredible. Mary Ellen’s bowl on the left had fries, salad, roasted veg, chicken and a sauce with pomegranate seeds and cheese. Barry’s was similar but topped with Camembert and honey.
We are both pretty knackered after a full day of sightseeing and riding. The first hour and a half was gruelling, particularly for Barry trying to lift trees and manhandle the tandem. It will be an early night.
