Notes from Saarbrucken and Nancy…

Le 21 février 2005.

These are just meant to be little highlights from my day trips to Saarbrucken (and Forbach) and Nancy.

Saarbrucken:

Anna decided that we were going to be French tourists, hence speaking only French and especially with strangers. We forced the nice gentleman at the Saarbrucken tourist office to explain things to us only in French, even though I’m guessing his English was much better than his French.

A gruff man stopped to ask us if we needed help or directions as we consulted the map. We later saw him again chasing a kid who had just stolen something from his Sex Shop.

The RatHaus of St. Johann was amazing! We learned tons after asking if we could see the Council Room. The Director of Advertising for the City came to give us information on the beautiful room, let us stand on the balcony were famous people including General de Gaulle and Hitler have both given speeches to the city, and gave us CD-Roms on the City Hall, now a hundred years old. We also had an interesting history lesson from him- the parts of France and Germany that have passed back and forth throughout the last couple of hundreds of years were given the opportunity to vote after the Second World War on which country they were going to be in. In 1957, Saarbrucken voted to become part of Germany again (from 1945 to 1957 it was French) and in 1959, the vote was taken and won to become economically part of Germany. I hadn’t ever realized that these regions had had the opportunity to vote on their nationality after WWII.

Can anyone explain why there was a Hebrew inscription on the ceiling of the half-dome over the altar of the Basilika St. Johann? I’ve forgotten if Anna could read it or not.

Lunch was a fabulous sandwich in this little sandwich place incidentally called the Sandwich Haus.

A pain aux raisins in Germany has vanilla baked into it instead of frosting on top of it-- a very yummy variation of a favorite of mine.

I love phone booths I guess. I am always noting the differences between them in different countries, or even in different regions. For instance, there were several different types even in Saarbrucken and in Luxembourg, there are handicap phone booths. If I was homeless, I would totally live in the luxembourgeois handicap phone booths, as they have the most space.

Forbach was a lovely little ville with a big LeaderPrice in the Centreville and a cute little rue principal. The ruined castle on top of the park was lovely with a nice view. Thanks to two little French ladies we didn’t get too lost.

In Nancy, the Place Stanislaus was under construction. Dommage, as the main fountain was covered up and it was difficult to get a good sense of the grandeur of the place from the wooden walkways around the edges of the Place.

The Musée de l’école des Beaux-Arts was fabulous. It was completely dedicated to the Art Nouveau which started in Nancy. I was even the cheesy American who realized that most of the ideas for Rivendell and Lothlorian (sp?) from Lord of the Rings must have come from the School of Art Nouveau. Not overly surprising though given that the Art Nouveau was devoted to using the influences of Nature in all its works.

It’s difficult to keep up with a French conversation when I haven’t been as immersed in the language as I was last year.

I appreciate the beauty of Metz after visiting Nancy. They are both beautiful cities but I feel Metz has more charm.

The Musée de la Lorraine had a wonderful temporary exhibition on Stanislaus, former Polish king and Duke of Lorraine, father of Marie-Antoinette. What great historical information about my second adopted French region. Stanislaus also had this dwarf, I believe he was even a relative, as one of his fools, Nicolas de Ferry, nicknamed Bébé because he was quite literally no bigger than a two year old. He lived till about twenty I think. They had a mannequin on display in the museum based on his skeleton at a museum in Paris. And continuing on Marie-Antoinette, she was actually picked to be Louis XV’s bride when she was three, decided against because of her age and later because her father was denounced from the Polish throne, but several years later re-added to the list by Louis himself after seeing a picture of her. For much of the reason of Louis’ favor, Stanislaus was granted the duchy of Lorraine so as to give him an acceptable title – he might have even been regranted the title of King of Poland, but I forget exactly. Polish kings it turns out were elected from the nobility of the day.

The Excelsior Café was a beautifully preserved example of Art Nouveau. I totally felt like I’d just walked into a meeting of tome raiders in an Indiana Jones movie. Good hot chocolate too!