Visiting the Medieval Monastery of Gorze in Lorraine (Eastern France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Medieval Monastery of Gorze in Lorraine (Eastern France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

One of the most interesting places my husband Laurent and I visited outside Metz (France) was the Gorze Monastery.  On the way there, we passed ruins of a Roman aqueduct at Ars sur Moselle.

At the entry to Gorze, we passed another aqueduct that ran partly underground.  Roman ruins made me think of how much history there is in France – from a Westerner’s point of view anyways.  China and India are both older civilizations than ancient Egypt.

We began our visit by climbing a small hill leading to the monastery chapel.  The tympanum, the half circle arch over the main entryway to the church, was what I called a Romanesque Last Judgment in haiku form.

All Last Judgment elements were there – the devil, monsters, angels with trumpets, a baleful Christ, and the select few.

We next visited an information-packed museum.  We watched an interesting slideshow abut the ancient Roman water system in the Metz (France) region.

According to our tour guide, Gorze is better known among Germans than the French, because the Abbey had many established several orders in Germany.  The Abbey no longer exists in France, but the orders in Germany do.

According to the guide, Gorze’s claim to fame is that the 8^th century bishop Chrodegung founded a school of “chants romain-messin” that later spread across Europe as Gregorian chants.

We ended our visit with a stop at the Graoully Restaurant and Bar.  We drank Kronenburg beers while the children played. 

I thought the trip to Metz was a great weekend outing from Paris, and it was still not over.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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French Seafood Meal in Metz (Lorraine Region, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

French Seafood Meal in Metz (Lorraine Region, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent’s cousin’s children invited Laurent, baby Florence, and me for lunch on our long weekend vacation in Metz, France.  We offered them a magnum of Moët and Chandon champagne that we could all drink as a cocktail.

We began our meal with a large platter of white asparagus from Hoerdt in Alsace (France).  We ate these with a bright yellow, homemade mayonnaise that was flecked with freshly chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley.

Our next course was a marmite de pêcheur (a seafood casserole).  The seafood casserole had items in it like shrimp, octopus, scallops, mussels, and salmon in a white sauce made with white wine.

Salmon and shrimp together have a sweet taste and should be paired up in more recipes I thought.  We drank a pinot blanc from Alsace  (Jérome Lorentz fils 1997) – a dry and fruity white wine that is typical of Alsatian white wines.

Then, we had paper-thin slices of prosciutto from Parma, Italy.  The other ham we tried was called a San Daniele from Italy’s Udine region, which also produces Moretti beer.  This region used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is called the Sud Tyrol in German.

We drank a medium-bodied red wine with the ham called Bergerac (La Caste 1990) from southwestern France.

For our cheese course, we ate a perfectly ripe Camembert cheese.   Camembert is luscious when it is the real thing.

For dessert, we ate strawberry tartlets and slices of currant tart.

Finally, I drank an espresso as coretto with some Mirabelle (yellow plum) eau-de-vie in it while Laurent drank a marc de Calvados.  (Marc is the French version of Italian grappa.)

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Exploring Metz: France's Eastern Stronghold by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exploring Metz:  Visiting France’s Eastern Stronghold by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I took the Autoroute de l’Est (East) to Metz.  Once we passed Eurodisney, the landscape became hilly.

Woods, stretches of forest, and champagne vineyards rolled by the car.  The landscape surprised me.  I thought that the East of France was flat and a little war-ravaged still with patches of unkempt fields and many war cemeteries with their uniform white crosses.

When we arrived in Metz, I did not expect to see a spot that shimmered with such lush, green colors.  It rains frequently, which makes everything grow easily.

Several islands break up the Moselle River.  A canal is attached to the river as well.  There are many pathways alongside the river, which allows everyone to take advantage of the flower-filled walks.

When we met Laurent’s cousin, I said, “Metz is beautiful” with a strong emphasis on the “z’” on the end of the word.

“We pronounce the name of our city as ‘Mess,”” his cousin told me.

She certainly knew how to pronounce the word as she was a high-ranking government official in the Préfet’s Office.  A French préfet is the rough equivalent of an American governor; they are appointed by the French president and not elected.

I had unknowingly touched upon some sore spots with my foreigner’s pronunciation of the final “z’ in the word Metz.  This northeastern region in France has been fought over by the Germans and French in two world wars in the 20^th century.

Metz is bisected by the limpid Moselle River with tiny island parks.  German architecture lines the fashionable Avenue Foch.

Every apartment building on this street seemed to sport a stepped, triangular façade typical of German architecture along with heavy, stone masonry.

The thick, floral garlands decorating the German homes seemed heavier than the narrower versions on French homes with their tall windows and smooth, light-colored stone exteriors.

There have been hideous wars between France and Germany with Metz on the frontlines.  However, there is a fusion of cultures in Metz that is artistic and beautiful.  (The Jews have a long history in Metz as well despite the fact that they no longer live there.)

The most obvious manifestation of contact between the German and French cultures appears in the famous name of Quiche Lorraine.  The name “quiche” comes from the German “küchen,” which means cake.

Housewives in Lorraine make Quiche Lorraine with a mixture of cream, eggs, and ham in an absorbent pie crust with ridges.  Sometimes grated gruyère is added to the recipe along with onions.

Every “mamiche” or “Lorraine Grandmother” has her own recipe.

Some French cookbooks with specialties of the Lorraine in them include:

-Saveur Cooks Authentic French:  Rediscovering the Recipes, Traditions, and Flavors of the World’s Greatest Cuisine by the Editors of Saveur Magazine

-Paris: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World by the Editors of Williams-Sonoma

by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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