Also known as the birthplace of Art Deco, the city apparently has the most impressive royal square according to our Michelin guide. It certainly was very pretty, the architecture similar to what I would envisage St. Petersburg to have. That is perhaps mirrored in the name too, Place Stanislas.
Because it was already 1.30 pm when we arrived there (sorry, not sorry for sleeping in) we were really hungry so we stopped at -the only- restaurant open in the area, Les Beaux Arts on Rue Stanislas where I had delicious oysters in Munster sauce. In my opinion, a trip to France is just not complete without either duck breast (magret de canard confit) or clams in sauce (moules a la creme), or both. La Bouche a Oreille next door also boasted a lovely menu but, surprise surprise, it was closed.
After we were fed and content, albeit very cold, we took to Musee de Nancy for shelter. They obviously had a large collection of Art Deco artifacts, but I enjoyed a number of paintings by Frantisek Kupka, Emile Friant, Armand Point and Victor Prouve. Most of them are at the bottom floor or second floor. I really recommend visiting the museum, I was pleasantly surprised by the collection they had.
We had a wonder round, visited the Cathedral which has a beautiful organ, and then rewarded ourselves with coffee and ice cream from Amorino.
When in Nancy however, when the shops are closed off course, you should do a trail of the most beautiful Art Deco buildings that are scattered around the city, remnants of a bygone era that I think I'd gladly prefer to my own. We started on Rue Saint-Dizier and walked up to Hall de Livres (another amazing bookshop from which it's impossible to come out empty-handed), then on Rue Saint-Georges, Rue Saint-Jean, Avenue Foch and Rue de Goncourt. I'll try and do a map so all these street names actually make some visual sense.
Our day ended at a local fair/circus thing which was such a vintage touch to an already enchanting city!
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