Nancy Museum Day

On the first Sunday of the month, most museums in France are open free to the public. It's a great opportunity to visit those places that usually aren't cheap/free for those of us still under 26 or who can pass for students. On past First Sundays, I've gone to the Musée de la Cour d'Or in Metz, or I've been elsewhere travelling. And there were a couple of cold, blustery, winter First Sundays, where not even a free museum visit could have pulled me from a hot cup of tea and a movie in my studio!

This month, for our last First Sunday, three of us from Metz took the train down to Nancy first thing in the morning to make the most of our museum day. First stop: le Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy. Nancy was home to the Art Nouveau wave in the first part of the 20th century, and the "Nancy School" is known for its work in this style.

Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy

The aquarium in the museum garden

The garden

Stained glass detail from the aquarium

Funeral monument

Stained glass detail

Then we went on to the Musée Lorrain - the museum of the history of the region of Lorraine. I was very excited to see what it had to offer, but was ultimately rather bummed by the lack of interesting content... mostly portraits of stodgy-looking dukes and bored-looking duchesses, not to mention an enormous collection of ceramic dishes from the various ruling families. There was, however, a very nice courtyard garden and an interesting and informative archeological section that featured an extensive display of artifacts from the gallo-roman period.

Sphynx in the garden

Spire on the Palais Ducal, where the museum is housed

There was a fantastic downpour which showed us that the waterspouts are still completely functional!