What to see in Nancy ?

Nancy is a city that owns its heritage with rare consistency. Built around a specific political vision—that of Duke Stanislas in the eighteenth century—it deploys baroque and rococo architecture of striking homogeneity. Place Stanislas, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is not an isolated monument but the heart of an urban ensemble conceived as a unified whole. Art Nouveau subsequently found fertile ground here, making Nancy one of the movement's major European centres.

Principally accessible from Paris by TGV in under 90 minutes, Nancy is ideally explored over two full days, in spring or autumn to avoid the heat bouncing off the mineral-toned squares. The École de Nancy museum merits a full half-day, often overlooked in favour of Place Stanislas alone. Avoid concentrating your entire stay in the historic centre: the peripheral districts contain the bulk of the Art Nouveau architecture.