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Brasserie l'Excelsior © Régine Datin really does seem to have arms that are ready to wrap around you. The huge sideboard appears to wave in the breeze. The fireplace surround looks like a gaping mouth just waiting to close. Although in isolation Art Nouveau artefacts can seem whimsical and romantic, when massed together as they are here in one dining room, the effect is somehow much more foreboding. You might find yourself thinking that if Dracula had a dining room, this is where he would sit down to enjoy a cup of warm, er, tea. But there’s much more to this museum than this unique dining room. That’s just one part of a very large house that forms the only museum in the world exclusively devoted to the presentation of a vast number of the most exquisite Art Nouveau artefacts. There’s a bedroom – with an astonishingly outsized winged bug motif in the timber – several well-presented reception rooms and fixtures and cabinets galore of the most impressively stylised glassware and ceramics. Around every corner is another startling revelation. Even the reception desk at the museum entrance would be a prized exhibit in any other museum. It’s this simple: if you have any interest in Art Nouveau at all, you’ve arrived in Nirvana. It Villa Majorelle © Damien Boyer just doesn’t get any better than this, anytime, anywhere, ever.” Just next door is La Villa Majorelle, the very first Art Nouveau building in Nancy, where everything from the curved bed frames to the excessive carved stone chimney running through the centre of the dining room make you feel as though you’ve fallen into a fairy tale. Look around you as you wander – even the parts of the city which appear modern and a little drab at first often hide Art Nouveau treasures. Pharmacies with mosaic façades. Carved wooden vines running around door frames. And most curious of all, the ceiling of a bank. Go into the LCL branch in the middle of Rue Saint-Georges, to find a stainedglass skylight, 250m2 in size, decorated with magnificent Art Nouveau flowers. Accountants going about their day seem unfazed by tourists, at least for the time being. Stop for lunch at Vins et Tartines, where you can try the region’s typical wine, known as ‘vin gris’, and it’s not grey as the name suggests, it’s actually an iridescent pink not dissimilar to rose-gold. The open-top sandwiches are positively gourmet, and very hearty. 12 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 13
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