The eastern edge of the Saargau, in the Saarland, drops steeply down to the Saar valley. To the west, towards Lorraine and over the Franco-German border, the gau landscape is rather flat and broad with gently rolling hills. Geologically, the Saargau, belongs to the Lorraine Scarplands, which rise every few kilometres from west to east in steep escarpments, the land sloping almost imperceptibly between each pair of escarpments. On the western foothills of the Saargau, in the area of the Moselle, wine is grown. The predominant grape here is the Elbling.
