FC Metz vs. Bastia

Entering Stade St. Symphorien

On Monday August 24th, I went with Sohail and Alex to see the local soccer team, FC Metz play Bastia. FC Metz has a rich history. Once a prominent French Ligue 1 team, it now competes in Ligue 2. My brother amazingly recalled that they were the 2nd-best team in France, just behind Paris Saint-Germain in the video game FIFA '97. That was a long time ago, though, and the stadium seems to have aged. The level of play seemed pretty weak for a professional match, but there were moments of brilliance that made it well worth the very affordable admission price of 10 euros.

The Stade St. Symphorien, was spartan and medium-sized. With a capacity of 26,700, it probably held around 5,000 the night we were there. The atmosphere was tame aside from two groups of around 50 harcore fans, singing and banging drums behind both goals.

I cropped the photos above to make this panoramic of the stadium. I don't know how to make it show up full size, but it's a bit more impressive larger, and not dumbed down.

I watched this free kick through the camera and thought the ball was about to drill me.

Corner Kick

FC Metz won 1-0 on a powerful curling shot from 30 yards out by... somebody. Oguchi Onyewu once played for FC Metz as did Franck Ribéry, Louis Saha, Emmanuel Adabayor, and likely many other famous footballers whose names I don't recognize.

More pictures from Strasbourg

Panoramic view from Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg

And the other side of the platform.

Water-bus leaving lock near La Petite France, the tourist district of Strasbourg

A swing bridge that opened to let the water-bus pass

At the beginning of the water-bus tour

La Maison Kamerzell in foreground, cathedral in back
La Maison Kamerzall is a well-preserved building with an ornate facade from the German Renaissance

The Lock

Strasbourg 8/22/09

On Saturday, I took the train to Strasbourg with Phil and Shaheen. We hustled from the bus to the ticket counter in Metz, then made our way to the 9:00 TER train to Strasbourg. A bit slower, than the TGV, and with a slightly bumpier ride, the TER made its way to the Alsatian capital in an hour and forty minutes. We stopped at the tourism counter in the Gare de Strasbourg. The tourism representative suggested the water-bus tour so we made our way to the Ill river, pausing briefly to gawk at the lofty Notre Dame de Strasbourg Cathedrale.

La Gare de Strasbourg

La Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg

(all the cathedral pictures are of this church)

All told we spent around an hour in line for the tickets to the water-bus, and then for the bus itself, but it was well worth it, especially for the uncovered boat. The covered version looked like

a greenhouse and, as Phil reminded us, would mess up any photos.

The Water-Bus

Strasbourg is the offical site of the European Union Parliament. This is the Louise Weiss building where the officials hold plenary sessions.

Opposite side of Louise Weiss building

The former customs house.

A covered bridge

All around were beautiful half-timber homes and businesses.

The highlight of the boat trip was travelling through two locks. A lock is a system that moves a boat upriver, where a boat enters a gated area of water into which more water is pumped, raising the water level, and then the boat exits the other side of the tank, having moved up several feet. The Panama Canal is one example of a system of locks. Once on land, we returned to inspect closer and appreciate the simple system.

These lock gates were held together by the water pressure on the high side. Two trap doors open below the water line to let water from high to low to equalize water height.

Entering the Lock

After the boat tour, we immediately got in line to climb the cathedral stairs. Here are some photos from the climb and from the platform just below the steeple.

Me atop the Cathédrale

View from the Stairs

Steeple seen from the platform


At the base of the chapel, we were attacked playfully by some screaming French children - I just screamed back at them. We then went inside the cathedral, took some more pictures, and threw some coins in an impressive change vault beneath a grating in the floor.

We wandered a bit, inspected a lock, and then paused for a beer at the Academie de la Bière. The server showed us no respect, but the Tarte Flambée- a flaky crust with cheese and toppings vaguely resembling pizza -was decent.

We left the Academie behind and checked out a covered bridge before returning to the Gare to catch a train and some rest on the return trip to Metz.

View from the center of Strasbourg

Dorm

Exploring Metz

Hay field outside my dorm with GT Lorraine academic building in background (dark glass)

Over the weekend, I got my bearings, and learned the layout of the city of Metz. My dorm is located east of the city center - two minutes walking distance from the academic building of Georgia Tech Lorraine. Walking to the city center is a different story. Roughly three miles away, the ville ancienne is better acessed by bus or, after 8 PM, taxi. The bus system is excellent, and costs about 2.20 euros round trip. Taxis are clean and the drivers are friendly, but a chauffered BMW ride will set you back 10 euros. Here are some pictures of my dorm building "Lafayette".

View of Lafayette courtyard from my ground floor window

Over the past week, I have seen and done quite a bit. First, Saturday, I went exploring with some new friends Matt, Sarah, and Jon. We checked out the Moselle river, a tame narrow waterway at the heart of Metz. Along the riverbank, we rented an electric powerboat, only to discover the rental limits were a mere 200 yards from the starting point. Nevertheless, we relaxed on the river below some beautiful cathedrals and old buildings. Here is a photo of the Moselle river with Temple Neuf, one of Metz's lesser-known churches, in the background.

A bunch of students went to see Inglourious Basterds. The comic fantasy war film was in "version originale" with French subtitles. At certain points, characters were speaking French, and thus there were no subtitles. The German and Italian portions were subtitled in French. All in all, I caught a quarter of the dialogue.

While traveling in Europe on two previous vacations, my brother and I have noticed shirts with English phrases that are very strange - as if the wearer did not understand what was written on his shirt.

I've spotted a few entertaining ones so far, and hope to see some more by semester's end and post them. The first t-shirt read:

"Miami Cocaine Connection"

Musée d'Orsay

Some works at the Musée d'Orsay caught my amateur eye. After reviewing the degraded internet images though, I have new appreciation for the works and the chance to see them in person. Maybe I should have taken some of my own photos. Here are my favorites:

Jean-François Millet
Le Repos de Fanneurs (Haymakers Resting)

The sunset in the background was the highlight for me. Is the male haymaker stretching? This is a horrendous photo of the real thing.

Mary Cassat
Jeune Femme Portant un Enfant (Young Woman Holding a Child)

I really liked the pastels in general and singled out this one for the beautiful skin tones.




Narcisse Diaz de la Peña
Les hauteurs du Jean de Paris

The sky in this painting caught my eye. In all of Diaz de la Pena's paintings there is some impressive lighting, especially in the blue-bright darkness of the storm clouds over the treeline.



Eugin Boudin
Le Port de Bordeaux

I'm partial to the marine paintings, and liked this one for the historical significance. The horizon is densely populated by the masts of docked clipper ships.






Henri Fantin Latour
Vase Des Fleurs

The texture of the flowers were the highlight of this otherwise blasé still life. A closer glance reveals them to be oily and disgusting - if you poured water on them they might fall apart and wash away.


Edouard Manet
Susanne Hecht de Profile

Another pastel, this Manet piece caught my eye with its luminescent, weightless fabric rendering in the dress on the chest. Done with bold pastel strokes, it looks like a child's painting in the image above, but in the flesh, it really is impressive.


Georges Seurat
La Lisière de Bois au Printemps (The Edge of the Woods in Spring)

Long my favorite artist, the dot extraordinaire painted an amazing sunset. The painting gave me a feeling of dusk, and I like it for no other reason.

Maurice de Vlaminck

Le Restaurant à Marly-le-Roi
Crazy colors lit up this pastel, and I couldn’t resist including it. Vlaminck was one of the originators of fauvism, the artistic movement characterized by liberal use of brilliant colors.

TGV to Metz

Gare de L'est

The morning of Friday, August 14th, I indulged in, to my surprise, a free hostel breakfast before pummeling my bags and my body through the metro turnstiles and onto the subway to Gare de l'Est. At the Paris train hub, I waited patiently, glad to be early rather than in a rush, then boarded the 10:39 AM TGV to Metz. I picked a random car, not noticing the seat or car numbers, realized my mistake, collected my bags and forced my way out of the car. I tracked down a SNCF attendant who checked my ticket led me back into the same car I came from and past the seat I was sitting in, as I again bounced my gear off the passengers and muttered "pardon" and "excusez moi" to whomever took offense. TGV stands for train à grande vitesse or high speed train. The scenery was moving fast enough to make my stomach churn after about 10 seconds of window gazing. I could manage only brief glances. In spite of the speed, it still moves with less clip-clop than a NY Metro-North train.
According to wikipedia, the track turns have longer radii than traditional trains for smoother turning at pace among other interesting design points - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tgv
Here is some video:

TGV: Notice the cars, on a highway no less, left in the dust.

Arrival à Paris

I arrived in Paris (Charles De Gaulle airport) on August 13th at around 8:30 am. The flight was delayed nearly two hours which was in fact the only two hours I slept soundly during the flight. Once on the ground, I collected my bags and headed for the in-ariport Gare SNCF to catch an RER train to Paris. Easy as that might have seemed, I spent the next hour wandering the train station helplessly. I waited fifteen minutes in line for a train ticket to find out I needed 8.5 euro in change not bills. After wandering and asking some locals about the change machine, I resorted to ordering a sprite from a shop, receiving an espresso instead, which cost 1.55. I had just recieved a 10 euro bill and 8.45 in change - not enough. I was finally directed to the change machine - another fifteen minute wait followed by another wait for the train ticket machine. All this while I meant to hurry to my hostel to drop my luggage by the 11:00 deadline.

After braving the RER and two metro lines, I hustled the last few blocks to the Oops hostel on Rue Des Gobelins, hoping that the sweat on my brow would help me persuade the manager to allow me in past 11:00. Ironically, the luggage safe room was completely unlocked and unguarded day and night giving me free access to store my bags for the day.

Amidst some errands, I discovered that my ATM card does not work in France, or at least the 5 distributeurs automatique that I tried. I picked up a SIM card for my phone, which failed to light up the service bars on my phone. Nevertheless, I trekked via metro over to Musée d'Orsay happening upon the Louvre complex on my way.

View from under one of the Louvre's arches of IM Pei's pyramid entrance

Near the Louvre fountains, water vendors posing

Louvre, Bushes, Eiffel Tower

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel outside the Louvre

Can you see the ferris wheel in between the trees?

Un bateau, le Louvre, ferris wheel, le Musée d'Orsay in that order

At the Musée d'Orsay, I scrutinized the first few rooms at escargot pace, inspired by this New York Times piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/arts/design/03abroad.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=look%20at%20art&st=cse .

I was soon losing steam and patience and picked up my pace as I travelled upstairs to the more famous rooms. Rock stars Degas, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Seurat, were all there, joined by friends Sisley and Pissaro. I didn't take any pictures - the art is on the internet anyway. In the Monet room, I allowed myself a thirty minute nap, then pushed on. Around 5 PM I called it quits, returned to the hostel, and slumbered until 915. Wary of the time, I settled for a beer and steak-frites at L'interlude on Rue des Gobelins. The beer was good, the rest, not so much.