I've enjoyed reading about your trip....especially the restaurant stories!

I've been to Metz several times...my husband grew up there. We try to visit there every few years and I was hoping to hear about your time there....did I miss it or did you not spend much time there?

Thanks for taking time to post!

margyb I only spent two days there Thursday and Friday.

I did enjoy the town. It's beautiful and especially beautiful at night.

I'm surprised that with it's size around 300,000 (I think?) it only has the one museum and FRAC.

I think they are building a branch of the Pompidou Center there. That'll be interesting in a few years if they do like Bilbao with the Guggenheim it should be pretty spectacular.

indytravel: "The Alsace part of Germany"? Surely a typo.

Despite what your guidebook says, you were visiting Lorraine, not Alsace.

Great trip report nonetheless. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

This one long report on Alsace doesn't contain anything about Alsace, at all. I scanned the report and the only reference was on ordering a wine from Alsace.

This one long report on Alsace doesn't contain anything about Alsace, at all. I scanned the report and the onlpy reference was on ordering a wine from Alsace.

That's what I get for not checking my guide book closely enough. I was lost and in the Lorraine region the entire time. Oops. :-)

Where is that edit button when you need it?

I did manage to get the rest of my photos scanned in.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&y=-9h4p7h

The new ones are after the Reims photos.

All right, why did Monty give you more money than he gave me for overbooking? I can't believe you kept this little tidbit to yourself until now. Congratulations! So now the foie gras/alcohol ratio is infinitesimal, isn't it?

David:

What a great report and great photos. Thanks for letting me read about a part of France I've never visited before. It goes on my must see list! :)

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your report. I hope you are collecting these as you are such a good writer. Maybe you are a writer for a living, I think you could be a food and wine critic, for one thing.

I'm glad you enjoyed Nancy -- I really loved the Ecole de Nancy museum, also, and was almost afraid you had missed it when I read the part about how nothing in Nancy appealed to you at the Tourist Office. When I was there a couple years ago, I think they were replacing some of those gilded arches over the streets around Place Stanislaus, and that was quite the center of attraction for everyone. I really enjoyed the regional Lorrain museum there, myself. The upper parts seemed like browsing around in someone's attic, and I remember finding an area with old photographs including some of the composer Chopin's family's home (and perhaps his father) as his ancestry was from that area.

david, I only now have seen your added photos. I hope you'll bring them when you visit us this summer. And those that can't be shown ((W))

Lol, that should have been :-)

that's wrong too, trying to make a wink :-)

Thanks Christina. I do save my trip reports. In the beginning I thought I was writing them for Fodors. I've discovered I really write them for myself. I like reading through my old ones. It brings back so many memories.

It's a little weird for me to find I wrote a 27 page document. To think my high school English teacher had to practically twist kids' arms to get us to write a 5 page paper in longhand.

I don't write for a living. I'm in the computer business. So I guess I do write but it's software not prose. Cobol anyone? Yes we still use Cobol in the new millennium.

None of the tourist packages in Nancy appealed to me. I should have been clearer. I've been to several cities in France where you can buy a combo ticket to most if not all museums like La Rochelle, Troyes, Reims, Nantes etc. Some of them even throw in a public transportation pass. Nancy didn't seem to have it together in that respect. That's too bad. I think it would encourage people to branch out and see a little more.

Nancy appealed to me immensely. It's so pretty with all the iron work on the buildings. The Place Stanislas is in the last throes of being converted to pedestrian only. The gilded wrought iron archways at the entrances have all been buffed up and lots of stone has been set in the plaza. They're almost ready for their 250 anniversary. It will be spectacular when lit at night.

Nice to hear from you TR. It is a pretty part of France.

Hi Nikki, maybe Monty gave me the better deal because of my costume. Being flipflops, a leopard print thong and matching deely-boppers perhaps he just wanted me off the stage. :-D

How did you know I'd apply the cash to the foie gras/alcohol portion of my trip? I still haven't been brave enough to tally my cost for those two items. After I found the ugly truth on my Bordeaux trip, I haven't convinced myself I need this information.

I don't know Mimi. After some of those meals I had I did feel like I was wilting from fabulous food overload. :-)

Are you sure you want to see all the photos? I took 7 rolls this trip.

Oh no, not more visuals.

See Nikki. You were dressed in your Fodor's black with a pashmina scarf.

Monty not being the world traveler didn't get the delicious, subtle ribbing.

He always went for the outrageous. :-)

ttt