What to see and do
▪ The ultimate vintage
THE Strasbourg Hospital wine cellar houses a barrel from 1472, the oldest on Earth, which has been tasted only three times: 1576, in honour of a delegation from Switzerland; 1716, after the hospital burned down; and 1944, when the city was liberated from the Nazis.
Take a free tour (vins-des-hospices-destrasbourg.fr) and you’ll be allowed to smell it (it’s surprisingly unvinegary) as well as learn the story of how this still-functioning hospital also became a famed wine cellar for Alsace vinos.
▪ Laze about on the river
THE 70-minute-long 20 Centuries Of History boat tour is the perfect introduction to the city (£12.30, batorama.com).
Listen to a commentary as the glass-roofed vessel glides around the Grande Ile (above), the heart of the city.
Look out for neo-Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals and the European Court of Human Rights, and hear the story of how the French national anthem was written in this city by one particularly enterprising young army officer.
▪ Canvas opinion
PICASSO and Rodin both feature in the glass-roofed behemoth that is the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, just 20 minutes’ walk from the cathedral (£6.40, en.musees. strasbourg.eu).
The Thinker is Rodin’s most famous work; take some time to admire one of the earliest versions (there are nearly 30 around the world) before getting acquainted with less familiar artists, such as the hilarious Alain Sechas, whose giant, top-hatted spider is displayed here alongside many of his satirical cartoons.
▪ Go stair crazy
UNLESS you’ve recently trained for a marathon, you’ll find ascending the 330 steps of the Notre Dame cathedral gruelling work. But the view from the top is — once you’ve got your breath back — worth the slog; you can see as far as the Black Forest from here. Look out for the very professional-looking engravings on the stones that errant guards would carve in exchange for tips from visitors back in the 19th century, before the practice was banned (£7.30, cathedrale-strasbourg.fr).
▪ Gone to market
STRASBOURG really goes to town with its Christmas markets — but even if you’re not here in the festive season, there’s an outstanding food market on Wednesdays and Fridays in the Place Broglie, outside the Opera House and Governor’s Palace.
This is the place to stock up on a variety of Alsace gourmet specialities at reasonable prices, such as Munster cheese from the La Famille Bach stand, or tourte vigneronne, an outrageously rich pie made with pork marinated in white wine.