I can't compare as I only went to Nancy when in that position as I did make a choice. I made a choice based on what was in the city and what was of most interest to me, of course. I was much more interested in visiting the Art Nouveau museum in Nancy (and there are other good specimens of that style in buildings, of course, Nancy was a center for that) than seeing a bicycle museum, which seemed to be the main unique thing about Metz.

Nancy is a regional capital and thus also has a rather special museum devoted to the local history and traditional arts (Musee Lorain), as well as a usual beaux arts museum which might not be anything unique. I really like those archeology and history museums. The Musee Lorain is rather special, I think, they have a large section just on the Commune which surprised me, if I recall. http://www.ot-nancy.fr/musees/lorrain.php I also like the general city layout with the gardens and place Stanislas. But I really wanted to see the Art Nouveau architecture and museum.

Anyway, that's my advice, find out what each city has and decide which one has the things most appealing to you. You can find out what these cities have online, I think they both have good websites. Of course Metz has a new Pompidou Center but since I've been to the one in Paris several times and usually go through there whenever in France, that's no special draw for me outside Paris. Metz has a good cathedral, I think.

I've often wondered the same thing, so I'm standing by to see what kind of responses you get.

Nancy is more popular than Metz with North American tourists, and I fully plan to make a report on this lovely city some day. However, I am a major defender of Metz and made two reports about it -- one about the city and one about the Pompidou Center.

So here are my two reports:

http://tinyurl.com/metzville

http://tinyurl.com/metzpomp

Haven't been to Metz, but I spent a couple of nights in Nancy specifically because I'm an Art Nouveau fan. (There's AN glass in the basement of the Beaux Arts Museum, BTW.) My report for that trip includes Strasbourg as well as Nancy: http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/nice-to-paris-on-not-taking-it-easy-in-eastern-france.cfm

Thanks for the responses. I will check out all the links provided above.

Oops,I just realized I made a typo in my title...it should be Strasbourg!

Some us us managed to figure that out, LCI!

Didn't now if you happened to catch my post on half of this issue. While we find Nancy more romantic than Metz, Metz is very nice as well. We need to get back and discover more, then I will post more.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/nancy-discover-cole-de-nancy-art-nouveau-and-more.cfm