Metz; Sunday, 04 May, 2025

Woken again by the bells of the cathedral, although this time I mentally counted 8 so decided that was a pretty good lie in, and a quick confirmation on my phone showed that the bell toll and time were in agreement, so I had a quick shower and headed down to breakfast.

After breakfast I headed out of the hotel and went for a wander through some of the squares and streets away from the cathedral, including a diversion up the Rue Taison and the suspended model of Graoully. Graoully was a dragon like creature who lived in the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre and regularly snacked on the local residents. After years of living in fear a religious man – later to become Saint Clements – arrives from Rome and using his stole drags Graoully to the river where he either banished or drowned the beast depending on the version being told. Clements went on to become the first bishop of Metz, Graoully now exists as one of the mascots of the city.

I ended my wander through the old town in the Place St Louis which is an interesting square partly surrounded by very tall buildings built over arches, which were used as trading places by the merchants working out of the buildings, though today almost all of the buildings are restaurants, with tables extending the full length of the square.

From Place Saint Louis I headed back through the old town and over to the Place de la République and from there onto the Porte Serpenoise, one of the gates of the city, albeit in the case of this one completely rebuilt in the latter part of the 19th century more as a decorative feature. From the Serpentine Gate I then headed round the corner to the Jardin de l'esplanade to have a wander through the gardens and then down the slope to the riverside.

I walked the kilometre or so along the river to the city’s botanical gardens and spent quite a bit of time wandering around those, though the main reason for visiting – to see the glasshouses was defeated by the fact they close a midday on the weekend, and it was long past that.

From the botanical gardens I headed back along the river to the centre of town and the quay by the Moyen Pont where I picked up the late afternoon river cruise that I’d booked onto the previous evening. From the centre of town the cruise heads up river into the Plan d’eau, the city centre manmade lake before taking one of the channels up onto the main course of the Moselle. Even here, 300Km from the point where the Moselle meets the Rhein in Koblenz, the river is wide so the main channel runs around the edge of the city centre with only smaller narrower channels actually running through the city centre.

After sailing up the river for a little while we then turned onto another of the channels and followed that back towards town, diverting again into the Plan d’eau to take in one of the best views of the cathedral, before a final sail under the Moyen Pont for a quick look at the Temple Neuf and then returning to the mooring point.

From the river I headed back up through town and found a very nice restaurant quite close to the cathedral where I had a leisurely combined lunch and dinner before heading back to the hotel to freshen up and wait for the sun to set to be able to head out and get some more nighttime photos.

Once dusk had started to fall I headed out of the hotel and walked over to the Porte des Allemands to take some photos of that lit up at night. I took quite a few photos and then decided to retrace my steps back along the course of the old city walls to see if any of those were floodlit. Sadly none are, and in places there was no lighting at all, so I was quite glad of the clear sky, the half moon and the last traces of light in the night sky, particularly around the Tour au Diable which would otherwise have been pitch black.

In the end I walked all the way back to the Quay du Temple Neuf, stopping off briefly at the Place de la Comédie to take some photos there, before finishing off with some photos at river level of the Temple Neuf before I headed back to the hotel and a nightcap from the bar before turning in.