Saarland
The Saarland is the state Germany makes jokes about, and at the same time the one with the highest density of Michelin-starred chefs per inhabitant. Both are true, and the second is explained by geography: France isn't a border here, it's the next village.
The landscape is underrated. The Saar loop at Mettlach is one of the most beautiful river bends in Europe; the Bliesgau a biosphere of orchard meadows and limestone grassland. And then the Völklinger Hütte — a decommissioned steelworks, a World Heritage site you climb like a cathedral.
Saarlouis, built by Vauban as a fortress, has an old town where more is eaten in the evening than in some big cities. You notice: the good life was learned from the other side of the border.
The Saarland is small, unexpected and closer to Paris than to Berlin.
We recommend the Saarland to people who want to eat well and have no appetite for the usual addresses. LA MAISON in Saarlouis is built for that: a former courthouse, a new building behind it, two kitchens in the house — LOUIS for the evening, PASTIS for everything else. You stay in town and eat as if you were in Lorraine. Go to the Saar loop early in the morning, before the coaches arrive, and to the Völklinger Hütte in the late afternoon, when the light falls through the iron.
