With Gallo-Roman ruins, art museums, sweeping cathedrals, winding water ways, mysterious passages, and the ghosts of three recent major wars haunting the streets and surrounding landscapes, Metz and the Lorraine region offer an interesting conversation between war and peace that may be compelling to diversity of artistic and historical sensibilities. We will process this sensorial experience through the genre of travel writing. Travel Writing is an exciting reflection on travel by connecting with foreign places through our unique, personal perspectives. Travel writing is not neutral or objective. But it isn’t fiction either. You will be constantly asked to make comparisons between your cultural experiences and observations with ones made in France. Renowned travel writer Pico Iyer claims that “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.” For our topic, we must consider that war destroys lives but also familiarity and tradition. However, in the wake of peace, creation abounds. New landscapes, design, art, history, and ways of thinking reflect the shifts in consciousness after war. This course will help you produce clear, expressive prose, sharpen your eye for travel detail, and cultivate your individual voice through the lens of art and history shaped by the painful events in war, but also by the rich culture developed in peace, in Metz, the Lorraine, and Alsace.