Nancy
Former Capital Of The Dukes Of Lorraine Whose Eighteenth Century Place Stanislas, Place De La CarrièRe And Place D'Alliance Form A UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 1983; A Centre Of Art Nouveau · Nancy, Grand Est
Nancy was the capital of the Dukes of Lorraine, and its centre is one of the finest pieces of eighteenth-century town planning in Europe. Stanislas Leszczyński, the deposed king of Poland who was given Lorraine for life by his son-in-law Louis XV, commissioned a chain of squares in the 1750s: the Place Stanislas, with its golden wrought-iron gates and fountains, the long tree-lined Place de la Carrière beyond a triumphal arch, and the small Place d'Alliance. Together they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around 1900 the city became the home of the École de Nancy, the French branch of Art Nouveau, led by the glassmaker Émile Gallé, the Daum brothers and the furniture maker Louis Majorelle, and their work fills a dedicated museum, a restored villa and many shopfronts and houses. The medieval old town and the ducal palace sit just north of the squares. Nancy is a lively university city, about an hour and a half from Paris by fast train, and easy to combine with Metz.
Place Stanislas, Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Nancy, Grand Est, France
The squares, the Pépinière park and the streets of the old town are public spaces open at all hours, and the Place Stanislas is lit at night all year. In summer the city has in recent years staged a free evening sound and light show projected on the façades of the Place Stanislas, usually from about June to September, starting after dark; confirm the season and nights. Most museums, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée de l'École de Nancy, open from late morning or around ten to early evening and are commonly closed on Mondays or Tuesdays; check each one, as their closing days differ. The Villa Majorelle can only be visited on guided tours with limited places, which should be booked ahead, and it may close for periods of work. The Palais des ducs de Lorraine and its Musée Lorrain have been under a long renovation with the main building closed; confirm what is open before planning around it. Shops close on Sundays, and many restaurants close on Sunday evening and Monday. The Saint Nicolas festival in early December brings parades and big crowds, and hotels fill early that weekend.