Lorraine has high culture and effortless grace thanks to its historic roll call of dukes and art-nouveau pioneers, who had an eye for grand designs and good living. The art and architecture in blessedly underrated cities like Nancy and Metz leave visitors spellbound, while the region’s WWI battlefields render visitors speechless time and again with their painful beauty.
Cities like Metz, with its outstanding galleries and jewel-like Gothic cathedral, and Nancy with its art-nouveau sophistication and uplifting Unesco World Heritage square, are a terrific starting point. From here, you can strike out into more unchartered territory. A hard-hitting journey heads west to the cross-stippled battlefields of Verdun, where the longest battle of WWI unravelled.