Strasbourg, located on the Eastern edge of France, close to the German border in the historic region of the Alsace, is the capital of the Grand Est region of the country.
Strasbourg is one of three European capitals along with Brussels and Luxembourg and the city itself is actually quite large. But despite its population of over 800 thousand inhabitants the city has managed to maintained a sense of quaint charm that dates back more than a few centuries. When visiting the city its not surprising that the old town has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site.
A historic cultural hot spot, characterized by both French and German influences, the city is easily one of my favorite places to visit in the country. I have been there twice now, once in December of 2019 for their famous Christmas market and once just a few weeks back, and I would easily go back a third time if I had the opportunity.
Petite France
Often referred to as "Petite France," or sometimes "Tanners Quarter" this old section of town is built on a large island within the larger city. It is characterized by its canals and bridges, and half timber homes that date back hundreds of years, making it quaint and charming and truly remarkable in its beauty.
The area was once home to the cities tanners (hence the name), millers and fisherman and is now one of the most popular locations to visit.
Located next to an old swing bridge is the home of the old Tanners Guild building - Maison des Tanneurs (pictured above). In and around this part of town is very cool and worth exploring.
On this visit, we actually arrived in Strasbourg a little late in the afternoon, maybe around 3pm or so. We were on our way home from a trip through Germany and decided to make the city our last stop on our way home.
Strasbourg isn't the sort of place that you want to rush through but we had been there once before so we didn't mind treating it as a brief stop over along the way. Before arriving I thought that we had mostly seen the entire old quarter during our first visit in December. I was quite surprised to find that there was so much more that we had missed on that first trip.
When we travel we typically stay in hotels outside the city because hotels tend to be cheaper and its always easier to find parking. We normally take public transit into the main part of town but in this case we just walked the 30 minutes from our hotel down to the city center.
The cool evening air and the canals along the way made the walk quite enjoyable.
The photo below was taken just on the edge of Petite France right before heading into the heart of it.
The next shot was taken directly in the busy part of town. Its hard to image that the little shop below is located in the heart of a big city. To me the English style garden looks like it belongs to a house out in the country.
Being so old, the town also has a really interesting history. Among one of my favorite historical tibits to learn about was the dancing plague of 1518. The event is said to have started with only one woman who began dancing in the street. Many more people (estimated 50-400) joined in as the event unfolded into a sort of dancing mania. The whole ordeal lasted for several days until the church, courts and some doctors got together to put an end to the whole thing. Many of the dancers ended up being put into the hospital for observation. Whether or not it was against their will is unknown to me.
Flower pots, half timbers and a few outer wall paintings really add to the overall charm of this part of the city.
I thought the painting on the building below was pretty cool. To me the 3D paint effect almost makes the columns look real.
There is also something about vines spanning a city street, winding their way across chain lamps, that I really enjoy. Clearly I am quite easy to impress.
The half timber homes are almost endless Strasbourg. Luckily for me the novelty of them hasn't worn off yet.
The Cathedral
Like nearly all of the cities in France, Strasbourg has an impressive Notre-Dame Cathedral built in the old city center. Its a massive structure that appears to dominate its surroundings.
Construction on the church began in the year 1224 and continued over next few centuries. It is built out of sandstone from the vosges mountain range which gives it a distinctly redish-pink hue.
From 1647-1874 it was the tallest building in the world and today it remains the 6th tallest church in the world. It is said that it can be seen from the plains of the Alsace as well as from parts of the black forest in Germany.
Like most of the churches in France this one is ornately constructed in the Gothic style architecture.
Its worth taking a stroll around the plaza to get a look at the building from a few different angles.
I'm a bit disappointing to say that I have been to Strasbourg twice now and I still haven't gone inside the building. The first time I was there was during christmas and we were too taken by the glitz and glamour and twinkling lights of the market to be bothered to wait in the long line queued up to see the inside. This time around the church happened to be closed by the time we got to it.
I'm usually more impressed by the outside architecture of churches anyway. But it would definitely have been nice to see the organ and the rose window from the inside.
I really like the contrast between the two buildings in the photo above (Kammerzell House and the Cathedral). The dark brown of Kammerzell next to the light pink of the church.
Wood construction next to the stone - I don't know, its just kind of a neat spot.
The location in the photo above is another really cool spot to view the cathedral - that is despite my photo portraying it as a bit "meh." Here the streets form a clear path to the front entrance and the church sort of looms over the other buildings in the area. We ate diner on a restaurant terrace on this street and I noticed that a lot of people, certainly more talented then me, stopped here to take photos. We even saw a bride and groom stop to take wedding photos here.
Barrage Vauban
One of the nicest views of the old quarter can be seen from the Barrage Vauban, a defensive bridge that was built at the end of the 17th century. The terrace of the bridge looks out over a part of the river where it splits to create the island of Petite France.
Note: The picture above is slightly misleading. It is of the view from the bridge, not the bridge itself.
Two large towers and several stone bridges connect various land masses and offer their own unique views of the area. Its worth taking a stroll on each of the bridges to get a different vantage point of the area.
In the photo below you can see the cathedral standing tall in the distance. It really is Impressive. No other building in the area comes close to it in size.
