Metz, France

Spent 2 nights in Metz getting our first taste of France. My French is so bad that no one understands me even when i read directly out of the phrasebook!! I guess i’ve only been trying for a day tho so i should probably give it time :P Took aaaages to find the tourist office cos i saw on the one map i saw at the train station that it was in Place de Armes but asking people where this was was nigh on impossible! It turns out it isn’t very well known for one thing but more to the point i was pronouncing it totally wrong (and i tried lots of variations with each person we asked!). Eventually found it tho (its pronounced “plez darm” btw) then luckily one hostel was fairly close by. It wasn’t the one we wanted but the other was about ½ km more which was just too far for ve to walk with her pack ... and for me too come to think of it :P Tourist wise we looked around this awesome gothic cathedral (St Etienne) and wandered around town eating lots as always :) – sometimes seems as if we are eating our way around europe lol. Found a U-shaped food hall thing with cheeses and meats etc and boughts some cheeses that looked interesting and some cold meat that i thought was cheese cos we just saw the sign saying the “blah blah” whatever it was, was on special. Turns out it was some sort of smoked meat but it is rather tasty so who cares *grin* Even found a takeaway pasta shop which boils (like a deep fryer) your chosen pasta, then add your sauce and off you go – with soup with croutons as well of course :)