sade dit moi - l'énigme

i decided for the holidays to spend a day in a city called metz in france, just outside the border of germany, belgium and luxembourg and close to the city of trier in germany.  many friends asked me why go there? why not just go to paris because its france? i thought of that, firstly i dont have money hahahaha, secondly, i am so much fond of small cities, i find them charming and have much more to offer and discover than big and chaotic cities.

metz is the capital of lorraine region in france, it has a very complicated history, it belonged before to germany, then france, then germany and after world war 2 back to france again. the region of lorraine was called lotharingia in medieval times and löthringen in german.

its not big, little more than 100 thousand people, a beautiful old city, the moselle river - famous for its vin de la moselle,  and old and medieval structures made of yellow limestone rocks by which the old city is dominated by the gothic cathedral saint-étienne.

it was hell of foggy and snowy when i got there, and its the first time that i saw small lakes and rivers froze that long in deep winter.

normally, it would take me a hard time to embrace a city in a first glance, only few european cities had that effect on me like luxembourg city, malmö in sweden, innsbruck in austria, delft in the netherlands and liége in belgium, but the moment i saw everything, i was impressed. words cannot define everything - alternative scene, the old city which retains much of its buildings, snow and ice, frozen moselle - which was by the way is amazing because normally for a fast running BIG river to freeze requires -15°c and when i was there it was only about -5 °c, chimneys blowing smoke, yellow buildings and fog mixed together with the deserted and empty city! - i felt as though they made way for me just to see metz in an enigmatic and mysterious way.

as usual, i wore WRONG SHOES again! hahaha,  but i never like wearing winter boots - so my feet with 2 overlayed winter knitted socks cannot stand the chill and coldness, it was time to go home.

but i promise i would be back in metz, not only that, but explore the beautiful countryside of lorraine and perhaps the whole of france someday.