Not Sweating the Small Stuff

Nancy ... and a Cup of Coffee

After a show in the West End when I was bout twenty and living in London, a friend suggested coffee ... in Paris.

Christopher said we could just dash home (Knightsbridge), chuck a few things in a bag and be on the over-night Dover-Calais train-boat-train. He'd never worked as his father had made his fortune in the 1920s in wind-up children's toys - so such ideas came to him!

One thing lead to another and Paris was followed by Nancy in Lorraine in the north-eastern-ish part of the country ...


The city had been the consolation prize for the King of Poland, Stanisław Leszczyński (1677 - 1766), when he lost his throne - for the second time - in 1736.

Stanisław Leszczyński (1677 - 1766)

To console himself, Stanisław decided to turn Nancy into a kind of imperial if miniature capital of Lorraine.

And so Place Stanislas ...


... with its extraordinary Baroque gates ...



... and Triumphal Arch ...


... with other little follies dotted about the city ...


Christopher decided we'd stay at the Grand Hôtel de la Reine Place in Place Stanislas - cos it had been the palace ...



Can't remember if we had that coffee but as much as anything this surreal adventure taught me to be bold and think big - within the constraints of my wallet of course!

PS None of these images are mine - sadly I was going through a 'don't record just experience' phase at the time.