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I mean, maybe the Clash was not singing about us, but our opinion is that you should go but you should not stay. See, the thermal baths are awesome and one of the great things to do in Nancy (France). But you shouldn’t stay at Villa Thermae. Sadly, we’re not really sure where you should stay when you visit Nancy.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves…

We were invited to Nancy to talk about our ancient thesis of yore (Letter Spirit) which you can read about here. I mean, how wild to be asked to talk about 30 year old work on creativity, AI, and letter perception. What an honor. Here is a posting about the talk.

Scott Kim shows an illustration of gridfonts that I made 30 years ago.

Nancy is really a small provincial town with a long history and important links to design and fine arts. There are plenty of great places to eat, including: Sèves, Excelsior (about more which below), and le capu.

Avocado toast at Sèves is to die for

Excelsior has excellent oysters in a classic setting

An edible doohicky at le capu

The spa at Villa Thermae is worth a visit. But it is run by tiny French bureaucrats who should be replaced. And it is not upscale in the least. It’s very public and very French. Hilariously, I was forced to buy tiny little Euro bathing pants since bathing suits of the US variety were not allowed. We had serious scheduling issues with this place, so be forewarned.

We were assigned hamster cage 215, which was, all told, an awful room. It had a musty smell that could not be dispersed (coming from the dishwasher), the shower was plastic and too small, and the room was generic and uncomfortable. But it was free, and it was very close to the conference site. We failed to take pictures.

École nationale supérieure d’art et de design de Nancy

The famous Place Stanislas is actually quite boring. We went to see it so you don’t have to.

While we were at the aforementioned square on our first day, we were targeted by thieves who spotted our roller suitcases and jet lagged state from a distance. The group of 4 were easy enough to avoid, but certainly colored our visit to Nancy for the worse. Mostly people were friendly and helpful and the bus system was really easy to use. But the tourist zone can be skipped without reservation.

A group dinner at Excelsior was really delightful. Romey and I showed up way early in our quest to stay awake and had some secret oysters before the others arrived. Then we temporarily joined the wrong group…something about secretion?! LOL.

We had an absolutely amazing time at the NORM opening in My Monkey Gallery. See lots of content about that show on apothecaryshed.

The NORM artists by a gridfont-like machine observed by the lego throned gem

A visit to Musée de l’École de Nancy will steep you in l’Art Nouveau and set you back 100 years.

We switched up our TGV tickets and trained to Paris early. Nancy is certainly worth a visit, but Villa Thermae earns a paltry and musty two showerheads.