Normandy, Brittany & the Best of the North_ With Paris (Fodor's) - Fodor's [83]
THE HISTORIC CENTER
Concentrated northeast of the train station, this neighborhood—rich in architectural treasures as well as museums—includes classical Place Stanislas and the shuttered, medieval Vieille Ville.
TOP ATTRACTIONS IN THE HISTORIC CENTER
Cathédrale.
This vast, frigid edifice was built in the 1740s in a ponderous Baroque style, eased in part by the florid ironwork of Jean Lamour. Its most notable interior feature is a murky 19th-century fresco in the dome. The Trésor (Treasury) contains minute 10th-century splendors carved of ivory and gold. | Rue St-Georges, Ville Neuve | 54000.
Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires (Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions).
Just up the street from the Palais Ducal, this quirky, appealing museum is housed in the Couvent des Cordeliers (Convent of the Franciscans), who were known as Cordeliers until the Revolution. It re-creates how local people lived in preindustrial times, using a series of evocative rural interiors. Craftsmen’s tools, colorful crockery, somber stone fireplaces, and dark waxed-oak furniture accent the tableaulike settings. The dukes of Lorraine are buried in the crypt of the adjoining Église des Cordeliers, a Flamboyant Gothic church; the gisant (reclining statue) of Philippa de Gueldra, second wife of René II, executed in limestone in flowing detail, is a moving example of Renaissance portraiture. The octagonal Ducal Chapel was begun in 1607 in the Renaissance style, modeled on the Medici Chapel in Florence. | 64 Grande-Rue, Vieille Ville | 54000 | 03–83–32–18–74 | www1.nancy.fr | €3.50, €5.50 joint ticket with Musée Lorrain | Tues.–Sun. 10–12:30 and 2–6.
Musée des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum).
In a splendid building that now spills over into a spectacular modern wing, a broad and varied collection of art treasures lives up to the noble white facade designed by Emmanuel Héré. Among the most striking are the freeze-the-moment realist tableaux painted by native son Émile Friant at the turn of the 20th century. A sizable collection of Lipschitz sculptures includes portrait busts of Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau, and Coco Chanel. You’ll also find 19th- and 20th-century paintings by Monet, Manet, Utrillo, and Modigliani; a Caravaggio Annunciation and a wealth of old masters from the Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French schools; and impressive glassworks by Nancy native Antonin Daum. The showpiece is Rubens’s massive Transfiguration. Good commentary cards in English are available in every hall. | 3 pl. Stanislas, Ville Royale | 54000 | 03–83–85–30–72 | www.mairie-nancy.fr/culturelle/musee/html/beaux_arts.php | €6, €7.50 joint ticket with Musée de l’École de Nancy | Wed.–Mon. 10–6.
Palais Ducal (Ducal Palace).
This palace was built in the 13th century and completely restored at the end of the 15th century and again after a fire at the end of the 19th century. The main entrance to the palace, and the Musée Lorrain (Lorraine History Museum), which it now houses, is 80 yards down the street from the spectacularly Flamboyant Renaissance portal. A spiral stone staircase leads up to the palace’s most impressive room, the Galerie des Cerfs (Stags Gallery). Exhibits here (including pictures, armor, and books) recapture the Renaissance mood of the 16th century—one of elegance and merrymaking, with an undercurrent of stern morality: an elaborate series of huge tapestries, La Condemnation du Banquet (Condemnation of the Banquet), expounds on the evils of drunkenness and gluttony. Exhibits showcase Stanislas and his court, including “his” oft-portrayed dwarf; a section on Nancy in the revolutionary era; and works of Lorraine native sons, including a collection of Jacques Callot engravings and a handful of works by Georges de La Tour. | 64 Grande-Rue, Vieille