Nancy
Nancy, a town with 105,000 residents, is the central town of "Grand Nancy", the 5th largest urban group in France, numbering some 270,000 residents in 20 towns.
Its rich cultural and architectural heritage makes it a town with many levels: medieval, renaissance, baroque, and art nouveau, with a firm footing in the twenty-first century.
The former King of Poland, Stanislas Leszczynski became Duke of Lorraine and gave Nancy a wonderful gift of Baroque inspiration, which gained the town world-wide acclaim. He ordered the construction of the Place with golden gates, which is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and which bears his name to this very day.
It is an artistic town, and at the end of the nineteenth century it gave its name to an art nouveau movement, giving France her first modern Decorative Arts movement and a new architectural style.
www.mairie-nancy.fr
www.grand-nancy.org
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La Bresse
At the heart of the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park, La Bresse is a mountain village of 5,092 inhabitants, spreading over 5,672 hectares, from 609m above sea level to the summit of Hohneck, which at 1,366m is the highest point in the Vosges department.
In winter, it is the largest winter sports station in eastern France with three alpine areas suitable for night-time or dawn skiing, a snow park, a slalom slope. The Domaine Nordique with 50km of runs, play areas, a biathlon course, 40km of marked route for cross country hiking (using snowshoes).
Classified as a "Station Verte de Vacances" (meaning it must strive at all times to ensure that tourists benefit from a calm and natural environment) in summer, it is possible to take part in several sporting and leisure activities. Hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, motorbike trials, quad biking, adventure playgrounds, fishing, or just simply relaxing in a specially maintained lake-side environment high in the mountains.
www.labresse.fr
www.cr-lorraine.fr
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