Weekend in the Eastern Moselle

While ash clouds hovered over Europe, David and I enjoyed the blue skies and sunny weather over Sarreguemines. Located at the confluence of the Blies and the Saar rivers, the town sits on the border with Germany. It is home to the former Sarreguemines Pottery Works, which began in 1790 and continued producing beautiful faience (tin-glazed earthenware) and other pottery through the middle of the 20th century when it closed down.

On Friday, we took the "circuit of the faience" which led us through the remains of the Sarreguemines facility, including the worker’s dormitories, kilns, the factory, the mill, the casino (not a gambling establishment, but a recreational facility), and the Sarreguemines Museum. We first walked up to the mill, where we learned all about the production of pottery from clay to finished product.

This part of the museum was unstaffed and those pieces of pottery were glued down tight!

Here is a work bench used by women who painted the pottery.

The remains of a factory building have been converted into gardens. If we had been there on Sunday, we would have enjoyed the festival of the gardens at the mill.

Realizing that we should conserve our energy for the museum in the central part of town, we decided to wait for a bus. One arrived, but the driver was taking a break and went to get some coffee at a nearby cafe. When he came back, he entered into a conversation with David that lasted for about 15 minutes (most of which was when he was driving!). He was so excited to talk to an American - they are in short supply as tourists in Sarreguemines, we think - and David enjoyed the interchange.

When we got back to town, we went to an exhibit of some of the wonderful products of the Sarreguemines factory at the museum. The table service:

The majolica, in all shapes and sizes:

These are just a few of the beautiful items that were on display.

After looking at the casino, we looked at the shop, which carried reproductions of old Sarreguemines designs. We were happy to have learned about the history of the factory and its processes, but were dismayed that yet another craft had lost out to global competition.