Metz is well placed for day trips to neighbouring countries and regions. Luxembourg City is just 40 minutes by train, a charming small capital with dramatic fortifications and one of the best modern art museums in Europe (the Mudam). Nancy, the other great city of Lorraine, is 40 minutes south by train — its Place Stanislas, a Rococo masterpiece, alone justifies the visit. Verdun and the WWI battlefields are about an hour west by car; the cemeteries and memorials of the Western Front make for a sobering day.
Closer to home, the Fort de Queuleu, on the eastern edge of Metz, was a Gestapo internment camp during WWII and is now a small museum.