MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Metz has the whole range of architectural styles from Roman to the present day. Being moored right in the centre it gave a great opportunity to explore. One of our first outings was to visit the Centre Pompidou Metz. Built a few years ago to a design by a Japanese architect it is certainly a popular destination. Like these various outposts of the big museums/galleries they have a constant rotation of exhibits from the parent museum/gallery in this case the Pompidou Centre in Paris. We felt mixed about the content at the moment but the building was exciting if not very wasteful of exhibition space. How many staircases and foyers/landings do you need?

Exterior of Centre Pompidou Metz.

Margaret perusing a sonic exhibit where the hanging disks reflect sound.

Another interesting modernist building is the Eglise Sainte-Thérèse, a contemporary church of Cathederal proportions which I thought was worth a visit. It was. All the tourists go to the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Metz which is impressive with 6500 square metres of stained glass but not as impressive as other Cathederals such as Reims. It is a loss to people's experience that no one seems to visit Eglise Sainte-Thérèse.

Quite Zeppelin hanger like from the outside.

The spire. Yes it is that tall.

The stained glass above the altar.

I loved the building, far more interesting than the cathedral. I was the only person there. I'm not sure what this says but we do seem to have a rejection to modernist architecture. I hope not. I feel tour companies, Office de Tourisme etc. play safe and go with the old. What a shame!