Before 1974, the lake did not exist in Metz. There were wet meadows here on the edge of town. Often flooded, they froze on the surface in winter and the people of Metz came to ice skating. And then, we decided to build the Metz-Thionville motorway. As the outskirts of Metz were within the reach of the Moselle floods, it was necessary to build sufficiently high dikes so that the four lanes escaped flooding.
The botanist and ecologist Jean-Marie Pelt, then deputy mayor Jean-Marie Rausch, had the idea to kill two birds with one stone: to find the embankments of the highway, we took the earth in the marshy meadow. and we put water into this disbursement. By enlarging the confluence between the two arms of the Moselle, we created the lake. And with it all the gardens and this magnificent perspective, from the A31, on the lake and the cathedral.
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In the years that followed, the gardens grew, the marina was opened, a canoe-kayak course created. Today, we are delighted with this incredible prospect. But we denounce the noise and increasing pollution of this highway so close to the city …
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