Moselle is named after the river of the same name, which runs from the Vosges mountains, through the department, and into Luxembourg and Germany.
Heavily industrialised in the 19th Century, the department has also kept picturesque corners, especially along the river where terraced vineyards produce some of the most famous Riesling white wines in the world, which even the Romans enjoyed.
With the decline of coal mining and the iron and steel industries from the mid-1960s, the heavily populated department has experienced some hard times. However it is working on reinventing itself with tourism, service industries and wine.
Old blast furnaces are now museums, and valleys which were once clouded with coal smoke now have clear air – at least when the wind does not blow smoke from Germany.
The German connection
The department, with its borders with Luxembourg and Germany, has a troubled past. It was annexed by the Germans after the 1870 war, returned to France in 1920, and then occupied again in World War Two.
This history means that some of the population is bilingual, with French/German or French /Luxembourgish being spoken depending on geography.
French is the official language, and the German/Luxembourgish dialects are of a low-German closer to a patois than official German.
Another result of the history is that the department, along with Alsace, has its own laws, covering areas such as religion, health provision, property, justice, employment, hunting and even public holidays.
Although the legal mechanisms for buying property might be different, the security of holding property is as good as anywhere else in France.
The relatively dense population in former industrial towns means that many of the houses at the lower end of the market are terraced or semi-detached.
There are relatively few below the €50,000 mark – the cheapest at the time of writing was €12,500 in the centre of Dieuze (see below).
At the other end of the scale, more than €1million will buy an architect-designed contemporary home, small chateau or maison de maître, which in times past belonged to the steel and iron magnates.
Under €20,000
€12,500seloger.com
This €12,500 house in the city of Dieuze has 60m² of living space over two storeys, a pocket handkerchief garden, an attic – and no roof.
What happened to the roof is not explained, but it obviously collapsed a good few months ago and the wet winter has not done the property any favours.
From what we can make out in the photos, it was probably last decorated in the 1980s when large floral wallpaper was in vogue.
As the estate agent wryly notes in their advertisement, it is not a house for someone looking to do a little light DIY.
You are buying the view in this chalet-style house in the commune of Ancy, 20 minutes from Metz.
The house, with a 6,042m2 garden, overlooks the valley of the Moselle and comes with its own water supply from a well, and with the furniture and light fittings included in the €160,000 price.
It has obviously been built with the view in mind – the lounge opens out onto a large veranda, perfect for gazing over the valley with a glass of Riesling in hand.
There are three smallish bedrooms in the 64m2 living space.
One suspects it was a second home – the DPE is a lowly E, so to live here during the winter will probably involve some new insulation and heating source.
Moselle has seen invading armies come and go through the ages, so the builders of this house might have had defence in mind when they decided to create a medieval-style manor around 50 years ago.
They did not spare on the “material”, as French builders like to say, with the house obviously keeping stonemasons, carpenters, roofers and metalworkers in employment for the 11 years it took to build.
The result is an eight-bedroomed, 15-room house over 341m2 with a garden of 7,245m2 in Plappeville, just 50 minutes from Luxembourg.
Inside, sweeping stone staircases and heavy oak beams and furniture are offset against the stone walls, while the cellar includes a sauna instead of a torture chamber.
A tennis court finds a place in the garden.
In spite of the €1.95 million price, expect to have to do some work – the advert mentions that the electricity must be brought up to standard.
Some renovation will probably have to be done on the heating too. The DPE is F – but that might be because the house does not fit neatly in the framework used to calculate it.
