Lorraine

Lorraine, (French: Lorraine), (German: Lothringen) www.lorraine.fr is an administrative region in eastern France. It borders the countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany in addition to the French regions of Franche-Comté, Alsace, and Champagne-Ardenne.

Part of the region spent a lot of its history bouncing back and forth between the German and French political units. As a result, the contempory feeling of "frenchness" in the province is very strong. That is not to say the locals in Germanic Lorraine are not interested in maintaing their distinct multi-ethnic heritage.

• Epinal
• Metz — Germanic influenced administrative capital of the region with a strong military history.
• Nancy — has about 100,000 people and, despite its relatively small size, is the cultural capital of the region and a lively city with a student population of about 35,000
• Verdun — known for the Battle of Verdun in World War I

• Vittel

French is the everyday language spoken in Lorraine, but like in other parts of the country, regional languages are also spoken. Alsatian, or "Elsässerditsch", is a dialect closely related to Swiss German and alemanic still spoken in south-eastern Lorranine near the German border, though the language's boundaries also spill over to the province of Alsace. Lorrain, more specifically, "Lorrainian and Moselle Franconian", is known to its speakers as "francique or platt". It is the another regional language, spoken mainly near the Belgian and German borders. Both are non-standardized dialects of German containing many French loan words, spoken mainly by older inhabitants. Certainly, English and standard German are worth a try but only if you don't speak French!

• Quiche Lorraine
• Mirabelles