Post bike tour travels: Nancy

[expedition_retirement]

 As noted in earlier posts, after our bike tour finished, the entire group took the train from Obernai to Strasbourg, where we were given a walking tour through the city to the hotel where our luggage had been transferred. After getting some lunch and saying goodbye to our fellow travelers, Sandy and I collected our luggage, caught a tram back to the train station and caught a train to Nancy.

The train ride to Nancy was a little more than an hour, and the train passed through a number of tunnels as we passed through the Vosges mountains, leaving Alsace behind and entering Lorraine. Upon arrival in Lorraine, we checked into our hotel and walked into the city center to visit the Place Stanislas and to find some street food for supper.

The next morning, we set out early, in the hopes of visiting the Place Stanislas without the crowds that had been there the night before. It was almost eerily quite when we arrived, with only a few pigeons to keep us company. We had the entire square to ourselves to explore before we set off to see some more of the city. We found a number of the old city gates, all that is left of what was once an extensive set of fortifications surrounding the city. Unfortunately, the Lorraine Museum, located in the old Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, was closed for renovation, but we did manage to visit the neighboring Église des Cordeliers de Nancy. This monastery church was consecrated in 1487 and now houses a number of important historical artifacts from Nancy and Lorraine.

We also visited the Cathedral and the beautiful Church of Our Lady of Bonsecours. But that pretty much exhausted what we wanted to do in Nancy. In hindsight, we probably could have only booked one night in Nancy, rather than two. But if the museum had been open, we almost certainly would have needed the extra night here to see everything we wanted to.