Strasbourg Attractions - Tour de France Hotels

Strasbourg Attractions:

It isn't difficult to find your way around Strasbourg on foot, as the city centre is concentrated on a small island encircled by the River Ill and an old canal - moreover it's totally flat. The tourist office can provide a map (€0.50 for the one with all the museums and sights marked on it; free otherwise), but be warned that several of the street names are not marked - on the other hand, there are far worse cities to get lost in.

Visible throughout the city is the magnificent filigree spire of the pink sandstone cathedral that dominates not just the city but much of Alsace, though its silhouette is currently deformed by scaffolding likely to be in place for some time due to restoration work. To the immediate south of this building are the best of the museums, to the north, unappealing place Kléber at the heart of the commercial district, and, to the west, more intimate place Gutenberg, nominally the main square. About a fifteen-minute walk west on the tip of the island is picturesque La Petite France, where timber-framed houses and gently flowing canals hark back to the city's medieval trades of tanning and dyeing.

Most of Strasbourg's museums are to be found to the south of the cathedral (the main exception being the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain), between the tree-lined place du Château and the river. Check with the tourist office for museum passes/discounts if you're planning to visit them all.

Right next to the cathedral, place du Château is enclosed to the east and south by the Lycée Fustel and the imposing Palais Rohan, both eighteenth-century buildings, the latter designed for the immensely powerful Rohan family, who, for several generations in a row, cornered the market in cardinals' hats. There are three museums in the Palais Rohan itself (Mon & Wed-Sun 10am-6pm; closed public hols; €6 for all three): the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée des Beaux-Arts, with a decent collection of European paintings from Giotto to the 19th century, and the rather specialist Musée Archéologique. Of the three collections, the Arts Décoratifs stands out with its eighteenth-century faïence tiles crafted in the city by Paul Hannong. The rooms of the palace are vast, opulent and ostentatious but not especially interesting.

Next door, in the mansion lived in by the cathedral architects, the excellent Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame (Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; €3) houses the original sculptures from the cathedral exterior, damaged in the Revolution and replaced today by copies; both sets are worth seeing. Other treasures here include glass from the city's original Romanesque cathedral; the eleventh-century Wissembourg Christ, said to be the oldest representation of a human figure in stained glass; and the architect's original parchment drawings for the statuary, done in fascinating detail down to the expressions on each figure's face.

The Musée Historique (closed for renovation at time of writing; reopening in 2004) is at 3 place de la Grande Boucherie, near the especially picturesque place du Marché-aux-Cochons-de-Lait, and is mainly concerned with the city's past. On the other side of the river, in a typically Alsatian house on quai St-Nicolas across the Pont du Corbeau, is the charming Musée Alsacien, 23 quai St-Nicholas (daily except Tues 10am-6pm; €3), which contains painted furniture and other local artefacts.

The latest addition to Strasbourg's museums is the controversial Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (Tues, Wed & Fri-Sun 11am-7pm, Thurs noon-10pm; €4.50), 1 place Hans-Jean Arp, housed in a mega-budget, purpose-built, glass-fronted building overlooking the river and Vauban's dam. It's a light and airy space and its collection is well presented, making up for its shortcomings by acknowledging the importance of some lesser-known artists. The ground floor confronts the themes, challenges and roots of modern European art from the late nineteenth century through to the 1950s, by way of the Impressionists, Symbolists, a good section on Surrealism, with plenty of folkloric, mystical paintings by Brauner, and of course a room devoted to the voluptuous curves sculpted by Strasbourg's own Arp. The chronology continues upstairs with conceptual art and Arte Povera, and finishes up with stripy creations by Daniel Buren and video art by Bill Viola. The temporary exhibitions - devoted to the likes of Kandinsky and Picasso - have been reliably good.