More from Metz

While at Charmes, we took advantage of the voie verte, (green way) or cycle track along the canal towpath, which in turn follows alongside the Moselle river.  10km upstream is the little town of Chatel sur Moselle, which has a huge castle complex, seemingly being lovingly restored by volunteers, to judge from the hand-written information boards.  The town itself is less than a one-horse- town (i.e no prospects for lunch), though it did boast a couple of donkeys (in a field, not on a menu).  With all this water around it is clearly a great place for fishing, in fact one chap had his fishing rod laid down across the cycle track and must have been in a world of his own as he didn’t respond to Ray’s cycle bell, and didn’t notice us at all till we rode close enough to stop and say ‘Pardon, monsieur’ in our best French.

Our next stop was at Toul, as we decided to bypass Nancy in case of more, or continuing, bus strikes.  We managed to find the small but perfectly formed ‘aire’ in Toul, just space for 9 motorhomes, 5 euros a night with water, electricity and a view across the canal to the town included.  It is outside the police station so we felt quite safe. We liked Toul – it seemed more of a going concern than some little towns, with proper shops and the most amazing civic flower displays – like something from the Chelsea Flower Show.  The town is seriously fortified with huge and complex ramparts all around its perimeter and some very beautiful old streets and buildings within its walls.  We are, of course, in the Lorraine area, and for lunch managed to find a ‘Formule Lorraine’ which included a huge piece of excellent quiche Lorraine with chips and salad, followed by a slice of nut cake, also delicious.  We didn’t need another meal till breakfast the next morning!

View from the aire

So now we are in Metz, which as Ray says, will be nice when it is finished.  We drove into Metz relying totally on Lady Satnav, as we didn’t really know where the campsite was.  She, and we, soon got confused by the number of diversions, as the whole city is a mass of roadworks, we think they are putting in a new bus or tram system, it is a massive undertaking.  Fortunately we began to see signs for ‘camping’ and arrived safely, if a little fraught.  This is a very busy camp site and not the best, but it is so close to the centre of town, and on the banks of the Moselle, so we are not complaining.  We have walked miles looking round the city, which is interesting as there are distinct areas built under different rulers e.g the old kingdom of Lorraine, the French monarchy and republic and the parts built under German occupation.  For those of you with a taste for the ‘flamboyant gothic’ architectural style, Metz is a must see.  There is also a very modern satellite Pompidou centre, I suppose like the satellite Tate galleries in England.  The cathedral is immense, with the tallest nave in France (apart from the two taller ones – who writes this stuff in the travel guides?) and some incredible stained glass, including three windows designed by Chagall, who I think is a local hero. And we liked the sense of humour displayed in a big temporary garden outside the Opera House, which poked fun at the traffic chaos in garden form.  Metz has seen Sheila get us into another bad habit - honey flavoured with nuts.  A speculative purchase at a small farmer’s market, in the foyer of a local supermarket, it has proved to be absolutely delicious.

Chagall window

Moselle at Metz

Today we are moving on again, always supposing we can find our way out of Metz through the roadworks, and going further downstream towards Trier and those Moselle vineyards.