France Guide
Alsace and Lorraine
Musée des Beaux-Arts
Opening time: Daily except Tues 10am–6pm
Price: €6
Address: Corner of rue Stanislas and place Stanislas
The Musée des Beaux-Arts presents some excellent nineteenth- and twentieth-century French art, including a number of paintings by Émile Friant and Nancy's own Victor Prouvé on the ground floor. The rest of the collection upstairs, encompassing Italian, German, northern European and more French painting, is less interesting. Time is better spent in the basement, where works from Nancy's glass company, Daum, are beautifully lit in black rooms. The layout of the basement follows the shape of fortifications constructed from the fifteenth century through to Vauban's seventeenth-century alterations, discovered during the museum's 1990s renovation. For a glimpse of Daum's contemporary creations you can visit their shop on place Stanislas.