Every Saturday and Sunday, Vanessa Zhâ and Marion Sauveur make us discover some nuggets of French heritage.

Today, head for the Grand Est to stop over in Moselle.

Vanessa Zha invites you to visit the Saint-Etienne cathedral in Metz, while Olivier Poels invites you to taste the Lorraine pâté.

Direction Grand Est this morning, we land in Moselle. 

We take you to Metz.

So what's so special about this city?

Well, it was both a town of merchants, a garrison town, but above all a religious capital.

Under Charlemagne, Metz had 77 churches.

Which is why, when you walk around town, every 100 meters, you come across a church.

There are about fifty left today.

Churches in themselves, but also and above all the remains of facades, details, sculptures.

On the other hand, there is one which has been standing and for 800 years: it is Saint-Etienne Cathedral. 

And what is unique about Metz cathedral? 

It is already one of the highest in France, just after Beauvais and Amiens: a little less than 42 meters.

You will see, there is a feeling of grandeur, which is increased tenfold thanks to the perspectives, the vaults and the pointed arches which connect the walls to go to the ground.

When you wear a shirt with vertical stripes, you look taller, more slender than with a shirt with horizontal stripes.

Hence this effect when you go inside.

For the other particularity, you have to go to the choir.

You will thus understand why it is nicknamed "The lantern of the good Lord".

Estelle Trunkenwald, from the Metz Tourist Office, guides us inside.

"This is where we see the extraordinary surface of stained glass that have been introduced in this church. We are at 6,500 m2 in all, which makes it the most glazed in France. After that, you have the largest surface of Stained glass windows from the Gothic period, still present here. Our stained glass windows range from the end of the 12th to the beginning of the 21st century. That of Chagall, which can be found in the choir, is a centerpiece in the cathedral. "

Chagall and its stained-glass windows which tell of the creation of man, woman, animals and then the expulsion from paradise.

I do not know if you know his work with stained glass and light, I was not.

I discovered him thanks to his preparatory drawings, sculptures, paintings ... Absolutely magnificent pieces to see in a retrospective dedicated to him at the Center Pompidou in Metz: "Chagall, the passeur de lumière".

While waiting for the museums to reopen, I invite you to discover the exhibition online, on the Museum's website. 

What advise us to discover Vanessa in Metz? 

I invite you to discover the city, its history, its architecture.

Metz is a real mille feuille.

And nothing beats discovering it by the water, and just before the sun goes down.

The lights on the canals are incredible.

Result: monuments and bridges are reflected like a mirror on the water.

This increases the prospects tenfold and enhances each site.

For this boat trip, I advise you to get closer to the Solis Messentis, a solar boat.

And the captain of this boat, Robby, is absolutely brilliant.

It is a crush.

He knows all the little anecdotes, of the nature, the fauna, the flora which surrounds you, but especially of the city, of the buildings, of the bridges.

Do you know, for example, who maintained the bridges?

Saint-Nicolas hospital.

And to help it on the stock exchange, the city will create a somewhat special tax: a tax on the most beautiful clothes of the dead, which was sold to finance the work.

A hotel address to advise us? 

A very beautiful address, historical in addition.

"The Citadel", the former store for provisions of the king's armies, which has been completely restored by MG Gallery.

The hotel faces the Governor's Palace, and to the rear on the Templar Chapel.

The decoration is very contemporary and the team is warm, like the people of Lorraine.

Jenny and her chef, Aurélien Person, will delight your taste buds.

Don't miss his rum baba: a mirabelle baba.

And to know its history, well we will have to go.