Today we drove an hour to Metz, the capital city of the Loraine (as in that famous quiche so popular in the '80's!) of France. We came to see the cathedral, and the check out what was described as an "austere yet pleasing city". We didn't see the austere, but it certainly was pretty. The cathedral was really amazing. it has one of the tallest naves in teh world (10th tallest worldwide, 3rd tallest in France) and it feels even more dramatic because it's kind of narrow relative to the height. When you walked a few blocks away and looked back it looked like an alien spaceship had landed in this quaint little French town, except nobody was running away panicked, dropping their baguettes, etc.
The city is on the Moselle River, and there are a bunch of bridges (15-20?) that cross the river and connect the different neighborhoods and parks. lots of cobblestone streets, swans, flowers, etc. made it all a very "pleasing" city indeed.
The town was visually striking becasuse most of the buildings were made of this golden yellow sandstone. Even on a cloudy day it gave the place a warm glow. We talked about painting our living room here that color. . I added these next 2 photos after i posted this entry so they are out of order. SHould have been further down the entry. I hope i figure out how to reorder things within the posts. Anyway, here we go ...
Aren't these signs funny and terrifying at the same time? it looks like you could fall down a pit and then get radiated. WHY are there radiation warning signs on this pretty (and old, and rickety, and probably not very radioactive-proof) door??? Weird.
Me (can you find me?) on the drive home.
Some larger versions of the pastries I bought from a small patisserie in the city center.
Noticing that boots: short booties and taller ones with lots of buckles are popular here. Also, everyone wears the super straight-leg, tight-around-the-ankles jeans.
Nice to see the Vagina Monologues are traveling in Europe.
Some more unusual fashion. This girl was probably about 13. She was pretty hip.
Nearly every building had white or very pale painted shutters.
Under one of the bridges.
A bridge. I think there were 15-20 of them in total.
Some fall color!
And now the cathedral!
Like many cathedrals (or all?) this one had some amazing carvings;
and candles ...
and a Marc Chagall stained glass window. It said there are rubies, amethysts, sapphires, etc. embedded in the window. I couldn't see them. most of the 16 windows are still being restored.
Sunlight through the stained glass. Dave is in the foreground.
Just to give a sense of the scale of the cathedral. SO much taller than the surrounding architecture.
It looks like the cathedral could eat the rest of the city.
The nave, super skinny and tall (3rd tallest in France, 10th highest in the world), leading the the apse - also one of the tallest apses in the world. (dave taught me the cathedral terms today)
It kind of looks like an alien, doesn't it?
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