Nancy > About Nancy

Nancy, is the capital of the north-eastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census, 103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper (105,067 inhabitants in the city proper as of 2012 estimates).

The motto of the city is Non inultus premor, Latin for "I'm not touched with impunity"—a reference to the thistle, which is a symbol of Lorraine. Place Stanislas, a large square built between March 1752 and November 1755 by Stanislaus I of Poland to link the medieval old town of Nancy and the new town built under Charles III in the 17th century, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Lorraine, is the only French region to have borders with three other countries: Belgium (Wallonia), Luxembourg, and Germany (Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate). It also borders the French regions of Franche-Comté, Champagne-Ardenne, which were at times part of historical Lorraine Lotharingia, and Alsace. The location of Lorraine led to it being a paramount strategic asset as the crossroads of four nations. This, along with its political alliances, marriage alliances, and the ability over the centuries to choose sides between East and West, gave it a tremendously powerful and important role in transforming all of European history, and indeed breed with royal families over all of Europe, play kingmaker, and seat rulers on the thrones of the Holy-Roman Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, and others.

Most of the region forms part of the Paris Basin, with a plateau relief cut by river valleys presenting cuestas in the north-south direction. The eastern part is sharper with the Vosges Mountains. Many rivers run through Lorraine, including Moselle, Meurthe, and Meuse. Most of them are on the Rhine drainage basin.