Alsace & Lorraine

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Champagne, Reims. Montagne de Reims. Hills covered with vineyards. France

©Massimo Santi/Shutterstock

Overview

Alsace is a cultural one-off. With its Germanic dialect and French sense of fashion, love of foie gras and choucroute (sauerkraut), fine wine and beer, this region often leaves you wondering quite where you are. Where are you? Why, in the land of living fairy tales, of course, where vineyards fade into watercolour distance, hilltop castles send spirits soaring higher than the region’s emblematic storks and half-timbered villages garlanded with geraniums look fresh-minted for a Disney film set.

01 / Attractions

Must-see attractions

Cathédrale Notre-Dame
Strasbourg
Nothing prepares you for your first glimpse of Strasbourg's Cathédrale Notre-Dame, completed in all its Gothic grandeur in 1439. The lace-fine facade…
Cathédrale St-Étienne
Metz
The lacy golden spires of this Gothic cathedral crown Metz’ skyline. Exquisitely lit by kaleidoscopic curtains of 13th- to 20th-century stained glass, the…
Musée des Beaux-Arts
Nancy
Lodged in a regal 18th-century edifice, Nancy's standout gallery occupies art lovers for hours. A wrought-iron staircase curls gracefully up to the 2nd…
Place Stanislas
Nancy
Nancy’s crowning glory is this grand neoclassical square and Unesco World Heritage Site. Designed by Emmanuel Héré in the 1750s, it was named after the…
Centre Pompidou-Metz
Metz
Designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, with a curved roof resembling a space-age Chinese hat, the architecturally innovative Centre Pompidou-Metz is…
Palais Rohan
Strasbourg
Hailed as a ‘Versailles in miniature’, this opulent 18th-century residence is loaded with treasures. The basement Musée Archéologique takes you from the…
Grande Île
Strasbourg
History seeps through the twisting lanes and cafe-rimmed plazas of Grande Île, Strasbourg's Unesco World Heritage–listed island bordered by the River Ill…
Musée d’Unterlinden
Colmar
Gathered around a Gothic-style Dominican cloister, this revamped museum hides a prized medieval stone statue collection, late-15th-century prints by…