We fancy Nancy

We took a day trip to Nancy because I wanted to see Villa Majorelle, which was built in 1901 to be the home and studio of furniture designer Louis Majorelle. Villa Majorelle is everything I love about architecture and furniture. Here’s the exterior:

And here are some of the highlights of the interior (bottom pic not mine):

It’s an art nouveau wonderland in there and it’s even cooler because some of Louis Majorelle’s furniture is still in there, like this bedroom set, with Ron walking right through the middle of my picture!

And look at this the stained glass on the top of a built-in cabinet! I know the picture is bad but I could not find a better one online:

Brief pause here for this other picture of Ron, in the train station, looking around for our hotel room key, which he has lost. He reports that he lost it while he was getting his phone out of his pocket to check our total daily walking mileage – 9.5! (Note: I later found the key on the Nancy train station floor):

In addition to having Villa Majorelle, Nancy has a pretty significant grouping of other Art Nouveau buildings. The city was a gathering place for artists in the late 1890s – they created the Ecole de Nancy – a place to work together, creating furniture, glassware, pottery, and other home decor. (And happily building some houses too!)

Here’s Villa de Glycines, from 1902: (no pics below are mine)

Here’s Maison Bergere from 1903 and its fabulous peacock doorway:

But there’s more to Nancy than art nouveau! We also came across the Basilica Saint Epvre, from 1874. We could only walk into the entryway but it was enough for me to get a look at some of the most intense stained glass I’ve ever seen. The impact flowed from the fact that there are two rows of glass running through the basilica – high and low vs. the more typical higher glass displays. Here’s a little video I took:

Nancy also has a UNESCO site – the Stanislas Square. My research says that it’s considered the 15th most beautiful square in the world. It’s notable for being an early example of an architecturally consistent public space – from 1752: (neither pic mine)

And here’s one of the original city gates – Porte de la Craffe – it’s been restored but is originally from the 14th century. The towers on either side were used as prisons until the 19th century:

It was one of those day trip plans that works out for a really special day and it was fabulous! We’ve got just one more day in Strasbourg and then we head over to Germany to catch our flight to Vilnius. I’ll be back with you in a day or two.