So there we went. To beautiful France with a stopover in Metz. They somehow got mad new money in that rather small capital of the Lorraine province. Their latest addition to the cityscape is the fabulous Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines-designed outpost of the Centre Pompidou.
It's a fantastic waste of space for the sake of beauty and design, which is always a grand experience. Art seems to be an afterthought, just like on so many museums designed by starchitects.
There was a nice show of minimalist Daniel Buren. Which featured some monochrome rooms you could walk (please don't run) around in and a hall of mirrors trippy enough to spend some time in. Definitely a great start to an even greater vacation.
Which took us to Vieux-Port on the banks of the river Seine not too far from the point where she reaches the ocean. Which made for some great views (this was the view from the back garden of our vacation home).
What we hadn't realized was that the little village of Vieux-Port in Upper Normandy is an almost theme-park-like array of traditional houses from the 18th and 19th century surrounded
by pristine flower gardens all over looking the last picturesque part of the Seine Valley(before the refineries and chemical plants on the outskirts of Le Havre some 30 miles downriver turn the actual Delta into a bizarre industrial landscape). So we ended up in this surreal old farmhouse with apple trees and flower banks and a vegetable garden that the owners let us raid for strawberries, herbs and radishes.
Yes, we did venture out a lot to the beaches of Seine Maritime and Calvados. But just for starters taking walks along the river and gazing out at the slowly passing ocean freighters was a a grand change of pace.
To be continued....
