Strasbourg

Why go

A border city that changed nationality four times — and kept the evidence of all four. The cathedral — a single sandstone tower that was the tallest building in the world for over two centuries. European institutions — the Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Court of Human Rights, all here. Alsatian food and wine — a kitchen that is neither French nor German and refuses to choose.

The character

Strasbourg means the city of roads, and it sits on the Rhine plain where the north–south route along the river crosses the east–west route through the Vosges. That position made it a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, then French under Louis XIV in 1681, German after 1871, French again in 1918, German again in 1940 and French since 1944. Families here have grandparents who changed passports without moving house.

The result is a city with two of everything and an unusual relationship with identity. Alsatian, a Germanic dialect, is spoken by the older generation; the food is choucroute and flammekueche with Riesling; the half-timbered Petite France quarter is Rhenish, while the Neustadt built by Wilhelm II is Prussian imperial planning on a grand scale. And the European institutions came here deliberately, as a statement: the Franco-German border, which produced three wars in seventy years, was the right place to put the parliament meant to prevent a fourth. Strasbourg's character is that argument, resolved and still visible.

Places of character

The cathedral astronomical clock — a sixteenth-century mechanism with a procession of apostles at half past noon. Neustadt — the German imperial quarter of 1880–1918, a UNESCO site and the least visited half of the centre. Petite France — the tanners' and millers' quarter on the canals; go early, before the boats. A winstub — the Alsatian tavern: shared tables, a stoneware jug, choucroute garnie and Sylvaner. European Parliament — free to visit when in session; the hemicycle is worth the security queue. The Rhine bridge to Kehl — walk into Germany in fifteen minutes; the tram now goes there too.

The way to do it

Take the city in two halves — French Petite France in the morning, German Neustadt in the afternoon — and the history becomes legible in one day. Eat in a winstub with shared tables and order the wine by the jug. Cross to Germany once on foot, because the ease of it is the whole point of the last eighty years.

One perfect day

Croissant and coffee near the cathedral, then inside before nine when the light comes through the rose window and there is no queue for the platform. Wait for the astronomical clock at half past twelve. Lunch at a winstub — onion tart, choucroute, a jug of Riesling — then walk the canals of Petite France while everyone else is eating. Afternoon through the Neustadt to the Palais du Rhin and the university library, then out to the European quarter to see the institutions in their landscape. Cross the Rhine footbridge into Kehl at sunset and walk back. Dinner late, tarte flambée straight from a wood oven, and a last glass in a bar where the conversation switches between three languages.

Grand hotels

Maison Rouge — a nineteenth-century address on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the city's traditional grand hotel. Régent Petite France — a converted ice factory on the water in the old tanners' quarter, with the canal locks below the windows.

When to go

Best expression: late November and December, when the Christkindelsmärik — running since 1570 — fills the squares. Consider: May and June, when the canals are best walked and the terraces open. Avoid if possible: the two weeks before Christmas if you dislike crowds; the market draws two million people.

The frame

Ideal stay 2 nights · Minimum 1 night · Best arrival TGV from Paris, 1h45 · Airport SXB 12 km, or Frankfurt 200 km by train · Walkability flat and compact · Best without a car yes, with trams