LoftVerdun (55)

A late 19th century temple, a luminous edifice in the centre of Verdun. The Treaty of Verdun, signed in 843 as a result of quarrels between Charlemagne’s heirs, established the first division of Medieval Europe. A thousand years later, it was in this very same place that a deadly conflict between the two main peoples resulting from said division, the Germans and the Franks, took place.
Today, the town symbolises this mutual massacre, but some of its traditions are much happier ones. Such as that of sugared almonds, invented by one of the town’s apothecaries who, at the beginning of the 13th century, had the idea of coating almonds in sugar and honey as a means of preserving and transporting them. Such delicacies are meant to ward off sterility which is why sugared almonds are always given for every French family occasion: weddings, christenings and communions. In the 16th century, the Dukes of Lorraine, comfit-box at their waist, distributed these sweets at the French Court and then throughout the kingdom.
Most of the streets in the centre of Verdun are pedestrian streets. They are full of numerous small, original cafes and other starred restaurants, where visitors can experience the particularly rich and inventive Lorraine gastronomy.