Metz markets
The Marché aux puces — the large flea market in Metz, France, held one or two Saturdays each month throughout the year — will be held for the first time in 2010 this Saturday at the city’s Park des Expositions.
The market is the second biggest flea market in France, after the one in Saint Ouen, Paris. It attracts dealers and individual sellers from France and surrounding countries, and is famous for its antiques, European collectibles and less-expensive odds and ends. It is open 7 a.m. to noon; a list of future dates is included in this week’s Festivals and Events calendar on Page 32.
For more details, go to www.metz-expo.com, and click on one of the rotating Marché aux puces icons on the home page.
If getting up at 4 a.m. or earlier to be at the market early enough to pick through the best bargains is too much for you, consider spending the previous night in Metz with a hotel package organized by the city’s tourist board.
The one-night Metz Flash Evasion package, for example, starts at 39 euros per person, double occupancy. It includes accommodation in a two-star hotel and an audio tour of the city. It’s available January through March, June, July and November. Upgrades to three- and four-star hotels are available.
Other package themes include gourmet dining, the Mirabelle plum and Montgolfiages hot-air balloon festivals in July and August, and Christmas markets in December.
Get details at http://tourisme. mairie-metz.fr; it has an English-language version.Mozart festival
The music of composers Ludwig van Beethoven, György Kurtág, Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert will join the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Jan. 22-31 during the annual Mozart Week festival in Salzburg, Austria.
In addition to Mozart’s familiar pieces, two recently found piano works that have been attributed to him will be played. The pieces were found in "Nannerly’s Music Book," which Mozart’s father, Leopold, compiled for his daughter Maria Anna and which young Mozart also used.
Tickets are available for most of the chamber music, opera, orchestra and soloist concerts. Prices range from 40 to 185 euros, depending on the concert.
For more information on these and other concerts throughout the year, go the Web site of the International Mozarteum Foundation, www.mozarteum.at; there is an English version.
