Art Nouveau, Art Schmouveau!

Nancy is the birthplace of Art Nouveau, which my mom is crazy about.  If you ask me, it just looks like a bunch of unnecessarily fancy furniture and bulging buildings.  But she had to go to the Ecole d'Art Noouveau in Nancy to see the early designs that started the whole movement.  Well, guess what.  They wouldn't let me in, even in my stroller.  So while Mom's friends went into the museum, we went to a great park that was people and dog friendly.  After Mom had her fix of coffee ice cream and I had my usual bowl of water, we went back to the museum and Mom's friend Virginia took me back to the park while Mom went into the museum.  She likes that sinuous style of art and decoration - I like sniffing in the park.

We also had petit dejeuner (croissants and cafe au lait) at Place Stanislas, a beautiful square in the center of town that was dedicated to King Stanislas of Poland who was also  Duke of Lorraine, the department of France that Nancy is located in.  This square was so clean and pristine that there was nothing to sniff.  It had a lot of fancy buildings and gates ornamented with gold, but absolutely nothing of interest to a dog.

The next day we got in the car and drove to Chalons-en-Champagne in the middle of champagne country.  I got to do a lot of walking around through a park that had ducks, geese and swans with babies.  I didn't get too close to them - they were a little fussy about dogs coming near their babies.  Chalons has a river and some canals that were fun to walk and sniff around and Mom took some pictures of me enjoying myself there.  I was so tired by the time we got back to the hotel that I just crashed on the sidewalk next to Mom and her friends who were having some refreshment at the outdoor bar.

We stayed in a little hotel here in Chalons which was small but charming.  We could look out our window onto the red tiled roofs and chimneys and even had a view of the top of the cathedral.