Nouveau Nancy

Well that week went quickly - perhaps it was because of the TGV, 300km in 1.5 hours - and I must say it was a surprise. Not just the city but the people and the attitudes that we encountered.
Nancy is in the north east of France and it was a bright sunny day when we arrived. The walk to our hotel (the cheapest we could find on the internet) led through the main square (Stanislas) which was very impressive with reconditioned buildings (ongoing) and gold shining on everything. We later discovered that the city is known for these World Heritage buildings and Place Stanislas (which was originally built in C18) and was "opened" in April 2005 by Jacques Chirac after refurbishment. It is a beautiful centre for the city with roads leading off on one side to the old city and on the opposite to the new "main street". Our street was opposite the one we had walked down from the station and ran down between the Opera house and a very swanky hotel.
We were amazed to discover that the hotel was really very nice as we had been expecting something less when it was so close to the main square and relatively inexpensive. As it was too early to check in we left our bags and set off to explore the square and surrounding areas (and buy some food). The tourist bureau was located in the square and they were very helpfull with information and directions but unfortunately it was another public holiday - there has been one every week since we got to France. So - no food but we did get maps and orient ourselves somewhat before heading back to the hotel where we could plan our program for the week based on the holiday and opening days for the various museums and businesses that we wanted to get to.
The strange thing about Nancy and the whole of this region (except the fabric museum in Mulhouse and the wallpaper museum in Rixheim - which we did not get to) is that nobody has answered my emails or snail mails. I was expecting to have been able to establish contacts with Daum, Baccarat and Lalique as well as the two museums in Nancy but nothing, so we would be going in cold.
Since everything was closed we decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant meal and wandered back into the old part of town where we found a busy little place where everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. In France, most of the restaurants provide a set menu which is either entree and main or main and sweet so we decided that I would opt for the former and Marcia would get the sweet and we would share. A good idea but in practice it turned out to make for a very rich meal for the both of us and, although it was fabulous, we both left feeling a little overfilled on rich French cooking and in need of a long walk. It was here that we were introduced the the "famous" Nancy Bergamot boiled lolly which the waiter gave us with our bill. We have only ever known bergamot as a component of Earl Grey tea but discovered that this treat was rather unique. We read in the tourist information that the oil comes from a tree which is a freak cross between an orange and a lemon but a quick check on Google when we returned to Paris revealed that it is really a fruit native to southeast asia and is grown mainly in Calabria in Europe (so much for tourist information!!).
Tuesday we set off down the street from our hotel away from the square to find the Daum factory and on the way discovered an arch and a canal with an elevating road bridge to let the barges through (there was also a raised footbridge to allow pedestrians to continue uninterupted while the road was raised. It seemed strange to be just a short walk from the glitter of Stanislas Square and to be walking along a village like road which could have been anywhere in France. Daum was easy to find but there was no information available and they referred us back to the shop in the square (got some nice pics though).
On our way back to the hotel we went via the main markets and brought some food (we were impressed to discover a fridge in our room and so could stock up on fresh food). After lunch we attacked the Daum shop (beautiful glass - and amazing art glass spread over three floors) where I was politely informed that the archives are not accessible to the public but the lady did load us up with catalogues. I returned to the Tourist Bureau to query a comment in a brochure that stated that Emille Galle (the other master glass maker of the region at the turn of the C19) was a noted botanist. The young man was extremely helpfull once he understood my project and brought out a book on Galle in English and showed me the references. I also discovered another book (in French) which contained all the correspondence of Galle as a senior member of the local Horticultural Society and there, in 1880, was a recommendation for the planting of a whole lot of exotic plants including our own Eucalyptus globulus. Bearing in mind that the local Jardin des Plantes had told me that that had no archival records here was an indication that the Eucalypt and Acacia could have been growng here when they were first used in the designs that I am investigating - yes!
Wednesday was a trip to theMusee de l'Ecole de Nancy. It is devoted to the École de Nancy, an Art Nouveau movement founded in 1901 by Emile Galle, Victor Prouve, Louis Majorelle, Antonin Daum and Eugene Vallin designed to develop the relationship between art and industry and promote the the work of local artists. There are examples of Art Nouvea architecture and fittings all through the older part of Nancy but strangely this museum (the former residence of one of the main patrons of the movement) and that of Louis Majorelle nearby are in a later (and poorer) part of the city on the opposite side of the railway station about 4kms from our hotel. It mainly houses the works of Majorelle, Prouve and Galle and is the major display of Galle's work in France. After listening to my story the man on the desk muttered, "tres difficile, tres difficile" but finally telephoned a young lady who spoke English to come and meet with me. She told me that there are archives of Galle's drawings and that she would go through them and email me copies of any references to Acacia or Eucalypt that she finds - I am not holding my breath as I am sure she is the same "communications officer" that I emailed before I left home.
Next day was the Musee des Beaux Arts where we had a similar experience - receptionist very helpfull and then a lady appears who speaks English and tells me, "of course we have archives but they are not kept here...you should have let us know that you were coming and we could have prepared them for you". When I explain that I had emailed and had no response she is very apologetic and offers to show us the information that they have in the museum. This turns out to be exclusively about the Daum collection that is housed there but we do discover another nugget of information about an artist who worked for Daum and was also a botanist and became head of the drawing department at one of the training facilities - another possible link in the chain. We are given a catalogue of the collection and promises to forward more material when it is available (guilt?) and also work our way through the Galle references on the shelves and find another Eucalyptus piece that we had not seen before. On the way out we visit the extraordinary collection of Daum glassware in the basement - we are blown away - and see first hand the Eucalypt and Acacia pieces we had been looking at in the catalogue.
One cannot help but get the feeling that there is a fair degree of parochiaism in Nancy. The people are very nice, courteous and helpfull, but are not willing to provide any real insights into their iconic regional drawcards. All surface but no meat. I could be proved wrong but we certainly came away with this impression.
Nancy is a great place to visit, there is lots to do and see and the people and gardens are very nice - as long as you experience it all as a tourist. Like many places in Europe the often plain facades of the buildings frequently hide beautiful gardens when the street doors are opened. Nevertheless I have come away with some nuggets which have helped to refine the parameters of my research, have new ideas for some work - and we had a great holiday there.