The Gare de Metz has been named France’s most beautiful railroad station in a competition organized by national rail operator SNCF. The competition, held on SNCF’s Facebook page, pitted 16 stations against each other in pairs, like a basketball tournament.
The Metz station, ironically, was built not by France but by Germany, during the period after the Franco-Prussian war when Alsace and Lorraine were annexed by Germany. Metz was the capital of Lorraine. The station was built in 1908, and has not only an impressive facade, but a 40 metre clock tower. It’s served by TGV lines to Paris, and has connections to Zurich, Munich, and even Moscow as well as regional cities.
More pictures of the station can be seen at TheLocal.fr HERE
Second place went to La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast, followed by two stations in central France, the Gare de Tours, and Lyon’s Gare Saint-Exupery, located at the Lyons Airport.
Title Photo: Gare de Metz by Tuxboard/Twitter
