SaarLorLux

My past two Saturdays have been like this--I wake up. Walk to the Hauptbahnhof and meet Youlia. Choose a city in France that we’ve never been to before and buy two tickets there. Stop by the Bäckerei and pick up a coffee and pastry. Hop on a train and go to France. Roam around a new city without a map. Get lost. Drink coffee. Drink wine. Repeat. Buy a bottle of our favorite French shampoo and a baguette. And at the end of the day, head back to Saarbrücken. I could get used to use this.

One redeeming quality of the Saarland is its close proximity to France. It’s almost enough to make me forgive it for the streak of unlucky weather this summer. Almost. With a SaarLorLux ticket, one can use unlimited train travel in the Saarland, Luxembourg, and Lorraine territories for a day. This ticket allowed me to explore two cities in Lorraine (Metz and Nancy) during the last two Saturdays of my internship.

Metz and Nancy are lovely cities built around rivers, with gorgeous architecture and old churches. It amazes me how these two cities, which are less than two hours away, can be so drastically different from Saarbrücken.

METZ

NANCY

Youlia and I make great travel companions because we enjoy the same things. She shares my philosophy that a city is best experienced without an itinerary and from the views of different café tables.

I don’t know when I became such a Francophile, but I’m afraid that I came to Germany and fell in love with France. Perhaps my fascination with all things French began after my weekend in Paris. The culture just seems to resonate better with my personal taste and flair. I think France just does some things better—like food, wine, fashion, music, and language. Even the toilet paper is more stylish—it’s pink!  I am starting to wonder if I chose the wrong language to learn.  Then again, maybe I just find France so appealing because it is a refreshing escape and contrast from my life in Germany. It is too soon to tell if this is just a phase or a long-lasting obsession.