Metz, France

We left early in the morning on Saturday for a day trip to Metz, France, which is close to the border with Germany. It took only about 2 and a half hours with the bus to get there. It was amazing that even though it is so close, and had at one time belonged to Germany, it looked and felt so different. Maybe it was the language difference, the different architecture, or hey, just the fact we were in a different country!

Being my first time in France, it was weird to hear “Bon Jour” when I headed into a store instead of “Guten Tag” or “Hallo”. When we had lunch at a sidewalk café, I actually mixed my German and English because it was so weird for me to not speak German with the waitress. I also learned that it is custom for the salesperson to come directly to you in a bakery or store in France. At first, I found it kind of weird for someone to make a bee-line for me as soon as I walked into a store…but, once I learned that it was a custom there, I guess you could say that I began to appreciate it more.

We only had the day….but, we were able to see a lot for the time we had. We took a city tour in German and was able to see the Cathedral (second largest in France, and the largest stain glass windows in the world), the old German wall when the city once belonged to Germany, the Protestant church that Kaiser Wilhelm II had built, and the city center. Most of the buildings had a yellowish tint to them and there were French flags and sidewalk cafes everywhere (and yes even a three-story tall McDonalds).

The Moselle River also flows through Metz (the same river that is right behind my dorm) and I have never seen as many swans in one place as I saw by the bridge there. The other international students that went and I had a really great time and it helped that the weather was so great!

P.S. I had the best croissant of my life there! Mmmm....