Metz

Just 1 1/2 hours from Paris on the TGV, Metz is a great excuse to get out of Paris for a day.
You arrive at the magnificent station, conceived by Kaiser Wilhelm II to celebrate the acquisition of Alsace-Lorraine as winners of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
 
Just 1 1/2 hours from Paris on the TGV, Metz is a great excuse to get out of Paris for a day.
You arrive at the magnificent station, conceived by Kaiser Wilhelm II to celebrate the acquisition of Alsace-Lorraine as winners of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
M was anxious to see what turned out to be an extraordinary exhibit that focused on 40 modern couples, including Man Ray/Lee Miller, Charles & Ray Eames, Max Ernst/Sophie Taeguer and Nathalie Clifford Barney/ Romaine Brooks.  We were joined by our friends Patricia and the retired architect Berry, who gave the exhibit and A+ and the new Pompidou Centre a B. 
Unfortunately the exhibit closed yesterday but you can keep abreast of upcoming events and plan a visit.
 
 
Patricia had a hankering for choucroute garni that we satisfied accompanied by a dry pinot gris at a local brasserie.
 
It had been a full day already but a surprise lay in store when we visited the house where Paul Verlaine was born. Four rooms on the second floor of a building that currently houses a law firm and other small businesses, it  was saved by Les Amis de Verlaine.
 
A team of volunteers scraped away the wear and tear of years of neglect, located appropriate period furniture and celebrate the life of one of France's most clebrated poets. If you speak French or German you will benefit from a sparkling, enthusaistic guded tour by Marianne, if not there is a translated brochure in English.
 
But by a stroke of luck Béranger Thomas the directrice, a singer and teacher of operatic singers; and yes I made her prove it, arrived near the end of our visit and invited us to taste absinthe form the Distillerie Paul Devoille.  A pefrect punctuation to a rich experience
2 rue Haute-Pierre

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