Faces of Metz

A Gallo-Roman couple (4th Century), from a funerary sculpture, Museums of Metz.

Contrasts

Soldes!

As I wrote earlier, the calendars for the winter and summer sale seasons are regulated. Everywhere in France, the winter sale starts January 6--except, as it turns out, in Lorraine, which for reasons that remain inscrutable to me, started its sales today, four days ahead of the rest of the country. French newsradio reports that stores expect not only local customers but shoppers from Luxembourg, Germany, and other parts of France. That explains why we saw most shopkeepers late on New Year's Eve putting up "Soldes" signs. Some store windows display mannequins wearing only, for example, a shirt with "Soldes" printed on it. Others are more discreet. The Max Mara store had a modest red decal of "Salde" on its front door. We passed up the chance to buy a $2,000 camel-hair coat for Susie for only $1,500, though.

So, the sun is shining this morning, and the crowds are out.

Verdun

On New Year's Day we drove via Thionville (and Yutz--actually not Yiddish but derived from the Latin word for justice) to the Verdun battlefield. On the way, bright green fields still covered many of the rolling hills, and the oak forests painted a study in grays and browns. As we neared the hills and forests north of Verdun, where 400,000 French soldiers, nearly as many Germans, and tens of thousands of Americans lost their lives in the First World War, we began to pass military cemeteries, first German, then French. Narrow black crosses marked the German graves, wider white crosses the French graves.

Few cars were on the roads, and few people were visiting the sites at Verdun. It's a solemn place, and all the more so under oyster-gray skies, in temperatures at freezing, and with occasional snowflakes. Because it was New Years Day, the memorials and museums were closed. But visitors could still explore the emplacements, stroll along the forest paths, see the memorials, and walk among the graves. The fortifications we viewed helped me understand how miserable, terrifying, and chaotic the it was for the soldiers.

The main battle of Verdun began with the German attack attack on February 21, 1916. The terrain is wooded, bumpy, complicated. Fortifications had been built into the hillocks and slopes--some reinforced concrete bunkers and forts, others just trenches.

Fort de Vaux, which sustained a horrific German assault, displays a touching memorial to a carrier pigeon, the commander's last, which made it through poison gas to reach headquarters before dying. The French defenders, cut off from reinforcements and supplies, held out for six days in the bomb-blasted ruins of the fort, enduring attacks by poison gas and flame-throwers. Finally, out of water and ammunition, they surrendered on June 7, 1916. Fort de Vaux was recaptured by the French on November 2. Although the battle of Verdun ended on December 18, the war would continue for two more years. With the entry into the war of the United States, the Franco-American offensive of September 1918 pushed the German forces out the region.

Many US soldiers died in that offensive, 27,000 of whom were buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery northwest of Verdun. The bodies of about 60 percent of the dead soldiers were repatriated to the US in the 1920s, but even so the Meuse-Argonne cemetery remains the largest US military cemetery in Europe, with 14,246 graves. The soldiers had come from all over the the United States, and ended dead on the Western Front. When we visited the cemetery late on New Year's Day, the pollarded trees edging the cemetery sections were leafless in winter's slumber. Light snow covered leaves of shrubs and dusted the headstones. We paid our respects to the fallen and turned home to Metz in the gathering darkness.

Ile Chambiere

The Ile Chambiere is a large island within the city of Metz that is home to, among other things, the headquarters of the Lorraine region, the municipal swimming pool, and the municipal library. Two ecclesiastical buildings stand out.

The first is a solitary bell tower, all that's left of a huge 19th-Century Lutheran abbey built to minister to German soldiers. The tower stands a meter taller than the tallest tower of the Saint-Etienne cathedral across the river, and 2400 people could sit in the nave. Completed in 1875, the Garrison Temple, with its neo-gothic style, predated the imperative to "Germanize" Metz's architecture. Unfortunately the church was heavily damaged in World War II. The bell tower, with its clock still keeping time, is all that remains. A great blog, la-lorraine-se-devoile, has more.

The second abbey reflects the changing vicissitudes of both architectural taste and political fortune. The Abbey of Saint Vincent, the second-largest church in Metz, after the cathedral, was built on the site of early churches that date back as early as the 9th Century.
The large gothic structure, completed in 1251, had its problems. The abbey's towers were successively destroyed by fire 1395, by collapse of the bells in 1656, by fire again in 1705, and by lightning (!) in 1752. And so, in a way similar to that of the Cathedral, a new monumental neoclassical facade was added in 1786, with successive tiers of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns. And that's how the abbey remains to this day--a neoclassical face on a gothic body. The grandeur of the new facade did not serve the Benedictines for long--with the French Revolution the abbey was seized and then rented to the city. It successively housed a military store and workshop, a prison, housing for prisoners of war, and a hospital for horses. In 1802 The building was returned the church and in 1804 became a lycée (high school), one of the first in France. Today the building is still part of the Lycée Fabert. The city of Metz has a Web page with the details of this story.

Things That Do Not Translate Well

The Moselle River in Metz

From its source in the Vosges Mountains on its way to its confluence with the Rhine, the Moselle passes through the city of Metz. In fact, in Metz the river forks into multiple streams, with the main branch well west of the center of the city and smaller branches running close to the cathedral. Here are a few pictures of the Moselle in Metz.

Just before reaching the center of Metz, a branch of the Moselle widens to form the Lac aux Cygnes (Swan Lake!).

Near the center of the city, one branch of the Moselle divides the Ile Chambiere and the Ile du Petit Saulcy, site of the New Temple.

Throwing bread attracts plenty of swans.

As the Moselle reaches through the heart of Metz, it passes by the Cathedrale Saint-Etienne and the houses that cling to its western flank.

At the north point of the Ile du Petit Saulcy, two branches of the Moselle rejoin as the waters continue their journey to the Rhine.