Luxembourg day four

Easter Sunday...and all the shops closed. Yes, this is the day we chose for our second trip outside of Luxembourg, to Nancy.
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!

Luxembourg day two

The second day started in full force with a walk down Avenue de la Liberte. It is part of the more business/financial neighbourhood of the city and, for me, one of the most beautiful. I loved the slight Parisian boulevard feel of the place, mainly given off by the cast iron balconies and architecture, most flamboyant in the Acelor-Mittal building.

Crossing the bridge, we took a left at the Place de la Republique, the one with the golden obelisk surmounting the Casemates de la Petrusse. A labyrinth of small, commercial streets unfolded with unique, boutique shops. I would recommend the L'Adresse restaurant, the Orfeo art gallery and Honey/Mustard concept store from where I got a lovely pair of Vagabond black pistol boots.

We walked through the 'fishmarket' as the oldest part of the city is known to reach another section of the Casemates. We also went on the tour but the 'trenches' or battle stations carved in the rock weren't spectacular at all. It did however have lovely views over the Natural Museum and the river.

This walking tour-de-force called for a stop at our hotel, to rest our poor feet...and also to add some more layers on. By this point I think it was actually snowing which I don't really mind as long as I can still feel my toes.
Towards the evening, we took the 13 bus to Mudam, Luxembourg's contemporary art museum. I wasn't particularly intrigued because I'm not big on modern art but I am ashamed to say my preconceptions got the best of me. In the end, it was one of the highlights of our trip there and I can't recommend it enough. The main building in these exterior shots is the Philharmonic hall - interested to see if the inside matches the shell.

I will let the photos speak for themselves but I will just name a few of my favourite displays: Dunkerque sand, L'origine de la source I and II, John Stezaker's photos and Su-Mei Tse's ink fountain.

'Till next time,

Ana

Luxembourg day one

At the end of march, my family and I went on a short 4 day trip to the small duchy of Luxembourg to celebrate Easter (but really, to escape the miserable weather in London). After a 45 minute flight, certainly a plus, we were greeted by wind, ice and snow on the tiny airport which was more or less the length of our plane. Our genius escape plan had certainly failed but we were -more or less- cautious and brought thick woollen coats and sweaters...basically our London spring wardrobe.

Anyways, weather aside, from the airport we took one of the buses, I think it was number 16, down to the Luxembourg train station from which we had to drag our suitcases to 35 rue du Laboratoire where our Novotel hotel was. It was more of a practical choice to be honest because the room itself was definitely too small for 3 people and the mini fridge was certainly too small to accommodate the kilograms of cheese we had bought - I mean, when next to France, that's a capital mistake! We had a rest and then took to the city streets.

We crossed one of the main bridges to pass the national cathedral, the statue of freedom and then the main square. I highly recommend Koempff-Koheler for deserts, they had an awesome tartelette citron. From there we passed the Palais Ducal opposite which is a lovely Chocolate house that I'll talk about in Day 4 I think :).

                                                                       Thanks dad for the photobombing... 

Round the corner was a pretty library called 'ernster' that sold books in English, French and German, and the environment certainly inspired me to buy a few poetry volumes and Moliere's 'Tartuffe'. We then wandered around the commercial streets but generally, shops are quite expensive in Luxembourg and whilst I was hoping for a similar shoe-variety scene as in Amsterdam I was very disappointed.

We ended our day in a little square which might as well be my favorite place in Luxembourg where we ate at L'Academie - seriously good food and massive portions, just what we needed after a long day out!