Nancy in 48 hours, starting from Le 1901
An itinerary built around two nights, written from the door of the apartment. The times given are real walking times.
Day 1, daytime: the 18th-century city
Head north. Eight minutes later you are on Place Stanislas: Jean Lamour’s gilded gates, Guibal’s fountains, an ensemble listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983 along with Place de la Carrière and Place d’Alliance.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts occupies the west side of the square, facing the opera house. Its basement holds a Daum collection set into the foundations of the old fortifications: allow two hours. Carry on through the Arc Héré and Place de la Carrière to Parc de la Pépinière, 21 hectares, about 52 acres, twelve minutes from Le 1901. All the distances from the building are set out on our page about the Charles III district.
Day 1, evening: the old town
Walk up the Grande Rue, the medieval axis: Renaissance façades, the palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, the Porte de la Craffe at the northern end. The climb takes about twenty minutes from Place Stanislas, shop windows included.
For dinner, La Bolée and La Maison dans le Parc are in the addresses we go back to. Book ahead: the center fills up quickly on Friday and Saturday evenings. You walk back, Place Stanislas being eight minutes from the building.
Day 2: the École de Nancy
This is the day people come to Nancy for without always knowing it. The École de Nancy museum and Villa Majorelle are to the south-west, about thirty minutes on foot or fifteen by tram and bus.
The museum occupies the house of Eugène Corbin, the collector who brought together glass by Gallé and Daum, furniture by Majorelle and stained glass by Gruber. Villa Majorelle was built in 1901-1902 by Henri Sauvage for the cabinetmaker Louis Majorelle; visits run in timed slots, so book before you set off. Come back via the Daum shop for the pâte de cristal. The other Art Nouveau addresses in town, the ones you can see from the sidewalk without a ticket, are gathered on our page about the École de Nancy.
Day 2, late afternoon: macarons and the train
La Maison des Sœurs Macarons keeps up the recipe of the nuns of Rue Gambetta. It is the most portable souvenir in town, and it fits in hand luggage.
Nancy-Ville station is a thirteen-minute walk from Le 1901, with direct trains to Paris-Est in about 1 hr 30. Check-out is before 11 a.m. and check-in from 4 p.m.: two nights leave you two full days.
For a working week rather than a weekend, it is all in working from Le 1901.
If you are coming from Paris for the day rather than for two nights, the arithmetic changes; it is worked out in Nancy as a day trip from Paris.
What to allow, hour by hour
Both days work without transport, except once. Here is what to allow, stop by stop.
| When | Stop | Allow |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1, morning | Place Stanislas, Musée des Beaux-Arts | 8 min on foot, two hours in the museum |
| Day 1, afternoon | Arc Héré, Place de la Carrière, Pépinière | 21 hectares, 12 min from the building |
| Day 1, evening | Grande Rue, old town, Porte de la Craffe | 20 min uphill from the square |
| Day 2, morning | École de Nancy museum, Villa Majorelle | 30 min on foot or 15 min by tram and bus |
| Day 2, end | Sœurs Macarons, Nancy-Ville station | 13 min, Paris-Est in about 1 hr 30 |
The one motorised trip of the stay is on the second morning. Everything else starts at the front door, which is why sleeping eight minutes from the square changes the rhythm of these two days.
The Pépinière, 21 hectares Stanislas ordered
The park did not start as a pleasure garden. Stanislas had it created in 1765 as a royal nursery, to supply trees for the roads of Lorraine. Hence the name, and hence the chequerboard plan of the lower part, which is a planting layout before it is a walking one.
The city bought it in 1835 and opened it to the public. Today it holds a rose garden, long geometric lawns, and in the upper part tree-lined avenues laid out in the English manner. Twenty-one hectares, twelve minutes from the building and two from Place Stanislas.
This is the stop that saves a July afternoon, when the square throws the heat back and every terrace is full. With children it becomes the hinge of the whole day, and the subject of its own page.
A third day, if you have one
Two days cover the essentials and leave three things out. Here they are, in order of payback.
The first is Art Nouveau beyond the museum. Nancy did not file its École away inside a building: the façades are out in the city, on lived-in apartment blocks, banks and pharmacies. A morning spent hunting them beats a guided tour, and we gave it a page of its own.
The second is Brasserie Excelsior, at 50 Rue Henri-Poincaré, opposite the station. Opened in 1911 to designs by Lucien Weissenburger and Alexandre Mienville, it still runs its Art Nouveau room. There is no ticket to see it: you walk in, sit down, order. It is the last meal before the train, thirteen minutes from the building.
The third is the market. The hall opens Tuesday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and a third day finally lets you shop there instead of walking through. With a fully equipped kitchen upstairs, a dinner bought in the morning costs a third of a restaurant and gets eaten whenever you like, which counts when four of you are travelling. The addresses are set out elsewhere.
Three days is also the format that justifies coming by train from Paris rather than as a day trip: about 1 hr 30 out, two nights on the ground, and the feeling of having seen the city rather than ticked it off.
Le 1901 is at this address
A 50 m² apartment for 4 guests, 2 bedrooms, second floor with an elevator, in the Charles III district.
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