Christmas +/- in Metz

We've had a low-key couple of days, catching up on our sleep and exploring our new environs. After a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at a nearby restaurant, we slept late on Christmas Day, took a nap a couple of hours later (!), and attended an organ concert in a very cold church two blocks away. Returning to the apartment to warm up, we watched television and made dinner, consisting of beef stew and wine. The buches de Noel made for a fine dessert!

We awoke to a clear blue sky this morning and decided to get in the car and drive east towards the German border. We went to the basement of our building to get the car and found that the battery was dead! So up we went to the apartment to call the Hertz Emergency Service. A mechanic came about an hour later and got the car started and we were then on our way.

David and I have a penchant for taking back roads to our destinations. He drives and I navigate; we have a French atlas that shows each and every road. Our first destination was a town called Pange, home to an chateau that was indicated on the atlas. The chateau was built in 1720 by Jean-Baptiste Thomas de Pange; its gardens have gone through many changes since that time. Occupied by the Americans, Candians, and Germans in World War II and turned into a children's home and playground, the chateau was returned to its owner, the Marquis de Plange, in 1977, and his son and daughter-in-law have restored the house and the gardens.

Passing the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant (one of two we saw today), we continued on to Creutzwald, a town next to the German border. We drove around looking for a place to eat (by that time it was about 2:30 pm), and weren't successful. On our way out of town, we noticed a sign for the arches dorees, and partook of a meal there. The fries were good and the bathrooms were clean.

Driving northwest out of Creutzwald, we came upon a small, terraced cemetery near the town of Bouzonville. We passed it, and noticing that it was a Jewish cemetery, turned around to take a look. There were many members of the Bloch family buried there, and there were stones on newer graves, indicating that people had visited the cemetery to remember family members. There is a wedding store in Bouzonville named Benoit Bloch.

We returned to Metz on a two-lane road on a ridge, enabling us to see green fields and valleys below. Once in town, we made our way back to the apartment, parked the car, and rested for a while before going out for a walk.

And a nice walk it was...through the Place de la Republique to the Moselle River, passing churches and buildings lit up in the night sky. We walked up to the Jewish synagogue then back down to the downtown area. After buying some very expensive Alsatian cookies in Place St. Louis, we headed back to the apartment, stopped for a dinner of tartines (open-faced sandwiches), and are here blogging away!