LORRAINE … UP CLOSE WITH JEAN BURROWS

France in One Day - Cuisine, Culture and History

If you only had one day to spend in France, you should spend it in Metz. This hidden treasure is the perfect place to sample French history, cuisine and culture, all within a half-hour walking radius.

We start in the centre, the Place St. Jaques, at my favourite spot for petit déjeuner. Metz is the oldest city in France and our walking tour of the downtown area takes in the highlights: Cathédral St.-Etienne (one of the highest naves and the largest area of stained glass windows in France); remains of the city walls and towers leading to the fortress of German Gate; the impressive train station built during a period of German annexation; St. Pierre-aux-Nonnains, built by the Romans and possibly the oldest church in France; and the classic landscaping of L'Esplanade.

Now we've worked up an appetite for lunch at a traditional French café, where we can sample dishes comme mamie les faisait : like grandma used to make them. A tour of La Cour d'Or museum finishes our exploration of Metz's 3000 year history, followed by coffee and a treat at one of the city's many fine patisseries.

Shopping? Whether for fashion or souvenirs, the city has lots to offer. The vibrant commercial center offers branches of many of the popular French stores.

I'll leave you at your hotel to rest and freshen up and drop off whatever treasures you've found along the way.

We'll eat early, 7-ish, then depending on the season, we'll sample French culture. Maybe a concert at L'Arsenal, a former arms depot that has been transformed into a performance center. Perhaps there is a play or opera at Place de la Comédie; the Opéra-Theatre is the oldest theatre in France. Or in July and August, it's Metz en Fête - a series of free performances of music, dance and theatre.

Antiquing in Metz

Twice a month, Metz hosts the largest marché aux puces (flea market) in northeastern France, attracting hundreds of suppliers and thousands of buyers from the surrounding region, which includes Germany, Belgium and Holland. Here you find everything from enamelled tin ware to Bacarrat crystal to locally produced faïence pottery, from folk art to finely produced furniture.

Once at the market, which runs from 6 AM to noon, we fortify ourselves with croissants and coffee (or something stronger!) as we rub shoulders with buyers and sellers and eavesdrop as people compare their treasures. Maybe you'll find a treasure of your own as we tour the five buildings of displays. Then we head downtown to the regular Saturday market for a quick tour through the hustle and bustle of the food stalls. Maybe we'll pick up picnic supplies for lunch along the Moselle, or we can choose one of the nearby restaurants for a leisurely meal.

Once the stores reopen at 2 p .m., we visit different antique shops en route to the Outre-Seille district, which is undergoing a renaissance as an area for antique shops and restoration ateliers. From there, we walk back up through the Jardin des Tanneurs to Place Jeanne d'Arc with its pretty fountain, where we stop at Café Jehanne d'Arc for drinks and to admire its 13th century frescoes and 17th century stencils.

Given our early start, we'll take a break to refresh ourselves, then regroup at 7 p.m., when we head to La Cloche, a charming little restaurant is at the foot of Cathédral St.-Etienne where we can watch the lights come up to illuminate the local Jaumont stone of the nearby buildings.

The Gallo-Roman Road

For four hundred years, Metz was a regional capital and an important trading center in the Roman Empire, and evidence of Roman civilization abounds throughout the area.

We start with morning coffee in Place St. Louis, where a row of medieval buildings sit on Roman foundations. From there, we head to La Cour d'Or to tour the Roman baths that form part of the museum's foundations

After lunch at a traditional café, we head south to explore the well-preserved arches of a 26-km aqueduct that supplied Metz with its water. Then across the Moselle and up to the pretty village of Gorze, the starting point of the aqueduct. The town's museum features a diorama that explains how the aqueduct was constructed as well as a series of aerial photographs that maps its route.

From there, we take secondary roads across the Lorraine Plateau as we head south to Grand on the Vosges plain. This tiny village (then called Andresina) is contained in the footprint of an sanctuary to the god Apollo Grannus, so important that it was visited by at least two emperors. There are a large amphitheatre, ramparts mosaic floor, and ramparts left for us to explore. The floor is one of the best-preserved Roman mosaics ever found, ringed with displays of local artifacts and more than 60 types of marble from across the Roman Empire.

We then drive through an artisans' village, and a market town. We can jump forward a millenia and visit the birthplace of Joan of Arc in Domrémy-le-Pucelle or descend into the Moselle Valley near Ars-sur-Moselle, where we visit another stretch of the Gorze-Metz aqueduct and finish with dinner at the GalloRoman restaurant in Jouy aux Arches.