Metz; Monday, 05 May, 2025

Defeated by the church bells again, this time at 7am, I decided to stay in bed a little longer finally getting up just as the 8 bells started to ring for a quick shower and then down to breakfast before heading back to my room, packing and checking out.

First stop of the morning was over to the city’s museum the Musée de La Cour d'Or. The museum is housed over a number of buildings, including a converted church and one of the city’s former grain stores, and as such it’s quite the labyrinth to wander around – thankfully there is a one way guided route that snakes its way through the different buildings, with lots of going up and down floors, you’re never quite sure where you are.

I spent a long time in the museum, not quite to the point where they were kicking everyone out for lunch, but it was getting close. From the museum I had a bit of a wander through the upper part of the town, stopping off at the Cloître des Récollets, a former monastery that’s been converted into offices, the archives and a couple of gardens including one housing toxic plants and one housing medicinal plants.

From there I wandered through the neighbouring park up to the highest point of this bit of town at the Place Jeanne d'Arc (because this is France and every city has one), before descending back down to the river and following the path back towards the Moyen Pont. Here I followed the path the loops around the city’s man-made lake, the Plan d’eau, stopping off at the far side to take in the views of the city through the Japanese Torii gate which has been positioned perfectly so you can frame the Cathedral within it.

I continued my lap around the lake before stopping off at the basin for the Canal de Jouy which starts, or ends, depending on your view, at this point on the Moselle. I also had a wander around the parkland near here before heading back in towards the centre of town to pick up some gifts and then over to the hotel to collect my luggage.

I headed back to the station, making the train with a bit of time to spare and then had a smooth journey back to Luxembourg, straight onto a tram and out to the airport, at which point the smooth journey ground to a halt as the plane was showing as being delayed by about 40 minutes.

After checking in I headed through to the lounge to sit out the worst of the delay, though as the penultimate flight of the night left nearly 90 minutes before our delayed plane it wasn’t surprising that almost as soon as the BA jet landed they closed the lounge and ushered us all in the direction of the gate.