Thanksgiving revelries, part 2

Mid-afternoon on Thursday, the three of us headed off towards Strasbourg.  Jill was wonderful and let me sit up front so that I wouldn’t get carsick.  Originally we had thought that we would only go as far as just past Reims that day, but I had found out that the entire distance from Laon to Strasbourg could be covered in something like four hours, so we decided to go as far as Metz that night (about two-thirds of the distance).

The French A-roads are very good, by and large.  They are fast, relatively direct, and generally in good repair.  The only problem that I have with them is that they are expensive.  They are toll roads, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the placement of the toll plazas, nor how much one has to pay.  If I remember correctly, you can go from Laon almost all the way to Reims (about an hour) without running into any tollbooths, but between Metz and Strasbourg (about an hour and a half) you go through four.  (The distances and numbers may be a bit off in that reckoning, but they are close enough to give the general idea.)  It seems as if the French government just gave a Gallic shrug when asked where to put the toll plazas and how much to charge and said, “Zis does not mattayr, put zem where you will, life is zuffering anyway…”

We arrived in Metz when it was fully dark, which is to say at about 5:30 p.m.  I was very glad that Aunt Suse was driving, since if I had been driving I would have crashed the car, so busy was I being astounded by the beauty of the cathedral which looms above the city.  I don’t know if any of you have heard of Metz or its cathedral, but the one is a charming town and the other is one of the most beautiful cathedrals that I have ever had the pleasure to view.  It’s in the Gothic style (I think – I might have my architectures confused) – flying buttresses, lots of arches-within-arches – and its roof is blue!  I will try to post soon some of the dozens of pictures that I took of the cathedral during the total of three hours that I was out and about in the city.  It is truly lovely, in my opinion.

We found a random hotel – one of the Hotel Ibis chain – and checked in for the night, then walked to the old portion of town (a five-minute walk) and found ourselves a restaurant.  The place we chose was really good, and the portions were enormous.  For 9 euros, I got a side salad, a small baked potato with crème fraiche, a three-egg omlette, a drink of my choice (I got pineapple juice) AND a dessert.  We sat and enjoyed a leisurely meal; or rather, we enjoyed all of it, save the parts where the people at the next table lit up some brand of cigarette that managed to be even more noxious than most cigarettes are.  Fortunately, they only smoked when they weren’t eating, and given the pre-described portions at this place, eating took up most of their time.

After dinner, we wandered around the magical streets of Metz, enjoying our first experiences of the season’s Christmas lights.  Quite a few people were out and about, enjoying the relatively nice weather.  The town just seemed comfortable to me, an impression which was reinforced the next morning, as we rambled around for an hour or two, enjoying the marvelously sunny weather and exploring the little Old Town.  We went inside the cathedral, which was just as graceful inside as it was outside, and wandered around a little church that had some strinkingly Middle Eastern aspects to it, as well as the added charm of purple doors.

After getting as much of our fill of Metz as we could given our time constraints, we left for Strasbourg at about 11:30, hoping to get there by lunch.  (To be continued…)