For everyday needs, people look to Germany, for something special in terms of enjoyment and savoir-vivre, they look to France or Luxembourg. Part of the family lives here, and they probably have relatives, colleagues or friends over there too.
Wine simply grows beyond national borders. Long before the war, Luxembourgers had their vineyards on the German side of the Moselle and vice versa. Language barriers are also hardly a problem for older people. Lorrainers, Luxembourgers and Saarlanders speak Moselle Franconian, which is very similar to Luxembourgish. Young people learn the language and culture of their neighbours from the very beginning, both in educational institutions and in everyday life.
Hiking without borders
Hard war years, countless border shifts, power struggles, negotiations and agreements have shaped the border region and its people for centuries. On closer inspection, the natural landscape still reveals the scars of this time with trenches, overgrown tank barriers, bomb craters and hidden bunkers.
Thanks to the Schengen Agreement, the region has now grown into a borderless, shared living and cultural space. The M³ Trail offers the opportunity to get to know this shared living and cultural space, its people and its history.
The M³ Trail is a 33-kilometer-long circular route that can be started at various points. There are very good parking options in the Perl-Sehndorf area (P+R parking lot at Kreckelberg), at the Perle train station, at the Europa Museum in Schengen and at the Maison de la Nature in Montenach/France.
The trail is a perfect mix of nature and culture experiences. Exciting paths, stream valleys and extraordinary natural areas offer nature fans a unique journey through the border triangle. With the Europa Museum in Schengen, the Château des Ducs de Lorraine and the Friedenskapelle Oberperl/Merschweiller, culture and history lovers will find exciting places along the tour.
The Schengen Agreement
On June 14, 1985, the “Schengen Agreement” was signed on the passenger ship “M.S. Princesse Marie-Astrid” on the Luxembourg bank of the Moselle. It is an agreement between France, Germany and the Benelux countries to dispense with border controls at the internal borders of these countries. Since then, the small Luxembourg border town has stood for a common Europe without borders.
On June 19, 1990, a second agreement was signed at the same location, the “Schengen Implementation Agreement”, which stipulates the concrete implementation of the agreement in legal and technical terms. With the Treaty of Amsterdam, which came into force on May 1, 1999, the Schengen acquis (“Acquis de Schengen”) was incorporated into European law. Many other EU countries have since joined the Schengen Agreement, as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Visas issued by a Schengen member state are valid throughout the “Schengen area”
