Complete travel guide to Alsace, Champagne, Lorraine and the Vosges
Grand Est is one of the most culturally and naturally diverse regions in France. From the Gothic cathedrals of Strasbourg and Reims to the Champagne cellars tunnelled into chalk bedrock, from the fairy-tale half-timbered villages of the Alsace Wine Route to the battlefields of Verdun that shaped the 20th century — the range of experiences here is astonishing for a single region.
This guide covers the essential things to do in Grand Est, organised by city and activity type. Whether you have a weekend or two weeks, whether you travel by train or car, whether your interests run to wine, history, architecture, hiking, or Christmas markets — there is a version of Grand Est that will match exactly what you are looking for.
Strasbourg's pink sandstone cathedral is the defining landmark of Grand Est. Built over four centuries (1015 to 1439), it was the world's tallest building until the 19th century. The single spire reaches 142 metres — climb the 332 steps to the viewing platform for panoramic views over the city, the Rhine plain, and the Black Forest beyond. Inside, the astronomical clock (built 1547–1574) puts on a daily mechanical performance at 12:30 PM featuring the apostles marching before a cock that crows three times. The cathedral's pink sandstone changes colour throughout the day, glowing warm pink in the morning and deep amber at sunset. The Grande Île — the island surrounded by the Ill river that contains the cathedral and the historic centre — is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 1988 as the first city centre to receive the honour.
The Petite France quarter is the most photogenic district in Strasbourg. The area takes its name from the 16th-century hospital built to treat soldiers with the "French disease" (syphilis), but today it is better known for its perfectly preserved half-timbered houses, narrow cobbled streets, and the network of locks and canals that once powered the city's tanneries and mills. The covered bridges (Ponts Couverts) and the Vauban dam are the best viewpoints. Take a boat tour with Batorama (€14, 70 minutes) for a guided cruise through the canal system that explains the city's history as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.
Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament, one of three seats of the European Union's legislative body (alongside Brussels and Luxembourg). The Louise Weiss building, completed in 1999, is a striking glass and steel structure shaped like an open book. Free guided tours are available in 23 languages (advance booking recommended). The neighbouring Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights are also open to visitors. The European quarter is in the Orangerie district, a 20-minute walk or 10-minute tram ride from the cathedral. The area tells an important story about Strasbourg's role in post-war European reconciliation — the city was chosen as the seat of European institutions specifically because of its history as a contested border city between France and Germany.
Founded in 1570, the Strasbourg Christmas market is the oldest in France and one of the most celebrated in Europe. Over 300 wooden chalets spread across five locations — the main market on Place de la Cathédrale, the Alsatian market on Place du Palais Rohan, the gourmet market on Place de la Gare, the indoor market at the Parc de l'Orangerie, and the children's market at Place du Château. The city erects a 30-metre Nordmann fir in the cathedral square and decorates the entire historic centre with lights. Over 2 million visitors come each year. The markets are open from late November to 24 December (closed Christmas Day). Read our guide to the best time to visit Grand Est for Christmas market timing tips.
Reims Cathedral is one of the supreme achievements of Gothic architecture. Built between 1211 and 1345, it was the coronation church of French kings — 33 monarchs were crowned here between 816 (Louis the Pious) and 1825 (Charles X). The west facade is a gallery of over 2,300 statues, including the famous Smiling Angel (Ange au Sourire), which became a symbol of French resilience after surviving the German bombardment of 1914 largely intact. The cathedral was severely damaged during World War I and rebuilt with funding from John D. Rockefeller. The interior is vast and luminous, with three massive rose windows and vivid 13th-century stained glass. Marc Chagall designed three windows for the axial chapel in 1974. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.
The chalk cellars (crayères) beneath Reims and Épernay hold over 200 million bottles of Champagne at any given time. The major houses all offer tours: Taittinger (guided tour of the Gallo-Roman chalk pits from the 4th century AD, 60 min, €27), Veuve Clicquot (tours of the 160,000-bottle cellar with a focus on Madame Clicquot's pioneering riddling technique, 90 min, €35), Ruinart (the oldest Champagne house, founded 1729, tours through crayères at 38 metres deep, 75 min, €38), Pommery (18 kilometres of cellars in a more affordable tour, 45 min, €20), and Moët & Chandon in Épernay (the largest Champagne house, 90 min, €30). Book in advance during summer and harvest season. All tours include a tasting of two or three Champagnes.
The Palais du Tau is the former archbishop's palace of Reims, where French kings stayed before their coronations in the cathedral. The building is now a museum displaying the coronation treasures — including the Talisman of Charlemagne, the coronation chalice and paten, and 16th-century tapestries depicting the life of Christ. The 150-metre-long Salle du Tau (banquet hall) hosted coronation feasts. The building itself was extensively reconstructed after the World War I damage. A UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the cathedral.
Colmar's Petite Venise is one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in France. The Lauch River canal winds through the former tanners' district, where colour-washed half-timbered houses — painted in rose, ochre, sky-blue, and pale green — lean over the water. The former fishmongers' street (Rue des Poissonniers) is particularly photogenic. Take a flat-bottomed boat tour (€7, 30 minutes) from the Quai de la Poissonnerie for the best perspective. The old town is also home to the Maison Pfister (1537), one of the finest Renaissance houses in Alsace, with a two-storey wooden gallery and octagonal corner turret.
Housed in a former 13th-century Dominican convent, the Unterlinden Museum is one of the most important fine arts museums in France outside Paris. The centrepiece is Matthias Grünewald's Issenheim Altarpiece (1512–1516), a polyptych of extraordinary expressive power. Painted for the monastery of Saint Anthony in Issenheim, whose monks treated victims of ergotism (Saint Anthony's fire), the altarpiece opens in three stages to reveal scenes of the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Temptation of Saint Anthony — painted with a visceral intensity that influenced Picasso and Max Beckmann. The museum also holds extensive collections of Upper Rhenish painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, modern art (including works by Monet, Picasso, Léger, and Dubuffet), and a significant collection of local decorative arts. The museum recently underwent a major expansion (2016), doubling its exhibition space.
Place Stanislas is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful squares in the world. Built between 1752 and 1755 in just 17 months, it was commissioned by Stanislas Leszczyński, the deposed Polish king who was granted the Duchy of Lorraine as a consolation prize. The square — 125 metres by 106 metres — is a masterpiece of classical French urbanism, framed by four identical buildings with balustrades, urns, and gilded wrought-iron gates by Jean Lamour. The Arc de Triomphe (a smaller replica of the Paris version) connects the square to the Place de la Carrière. The fountains of Neptune and Amphitrite at either end of the square are the work of Guibal and Cyfflé. In summer, a nightly son et lumière (sound and light show) illuminates the square from dusk. UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy occupies the eastern pavilion of Place Stanislas and holds a significant collection spanning the 14th to 21st centuries. Highlights include paintings by Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Manet, Monet, Modigliani, and Picasso, and one of the largest collections of Daum glass. The museum also features the Dufresne tapestry of the Adoration of the Magi. A 15-minute walk away, the Villa Majorelle (1898) is a masterpiece of Art Nouveau designed by Henri Sauvage for the furniture designer Louis Majorelle. The villa is a riot of organic forms — flowing plant motifs, sinuous ironwork, stained glass, and hand-carved wood — that epitomise the Nancy School, the city's Art Nouveau movement that rivalled Paris's work in the style.
The Centre Pompidou-Metz, opened in 2010, is the largest temporary exhibition space in France outside Paris. The building, designed by Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, features a spectacular undulating roof inspired by a traditional Chinese hat — a folded wooden lattice structure 90 metres wide and 70 metres deep, covered in a translucent Teflon membrane. The roof changes colour with the light, glowing white in sun and translucent grey in cloud. The museum hosts rotating exhibitions drawn from the 100,000+ works of the Centre Pompidou collection, covering modern and contemporary art, architecture, and design. The tower viewpoint (77 metres) offers panoramic views of Metz, the Moselle valley, and the cathedral.
Metz Cathedral (Saint-Étienne) has the largest expanse of stained glass in Europe — over 6,500 square metres. The glass spans eight centuries: medieval windows from the 13th–14th centuries, Renaissance glass, and modern works by Marc Chagall (installed 1962–1968) and Jacques Villon (1957). The cathedral's west front was rebuilt in Gothic Revival style during the German period (1871–1918). The surrounding Imperial Quarter, built during the German annexation of Alsace-Moselle, is a showcase of Wilhelmine architecture — grand public buildings in a mixture of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance styles that feel more like Berlin than France. The German Gate (Porte des Allemands) is the last remnant of the medieval city fortifications.
The Alsace Wine Route is France's oldest designated wine route (established 1953), winding 170 kilometres along the eastern foothills of the Vosges mountains through over 70 wine villages. The route passes through 67 Grand Cru vineyards producing Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Muscat. The essential villages from north to south: Obernai (a charming walled town), Barr (home of the Maison J. B. Adam, one of the oldest domaines), Ribeauvillé (three medieval castles above the town), Riquewihr (perhaps the most beautiful — a walled village frozen in the 16th century), Kaysersberg (birthplace of Albert Schweitzer, with a striking castle), Eguisheim (voted France's Favourite Village in 2013, a concentric ring village), and Colmar (the route's unofficial capital). Most domaines offer tastings for free or a small fee.
The Vosges mountains offer some of the best hiking in eastern France. The Ballons des Vosges Régional Nature Park covers 3,000 square kilometres of forested mountains, high-altitude pastures (chaumes), and glacial lakes. The highest point is the Grand Ballon (1,424 m), from which the Alps are visible on clear days. The GR5 long-distance trail traverses the entire Vosges massif — the section between the Col de la Schlucht and the Grand Ballon is considered the most scenic. For day hikes, the Lac Blanc circuit (8 km, 2.5 hours, moderate) is the most popular, circling the largest glacial lake with views of the surrounding peaks. Lac Vert (Green Lake), Lac de Gérardmer, and Lac de Longemer are also excellent. The Vosges offer numerous ski stations in winter (La Bresse, Gérardmer, Lac Blanc) with downhill and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and winter hiking.
The Battle of Verdun (21 February – 18 December 1916) was the longest and one of the most devastating battles of the First World War. Over 700,000 soldiers were killed or wounded along a 15-kilometre front. The Verdun Memorial, completely renovated and reopened in 2016, presents the battle's history through artefacts, photographs, film, and interactive displays. The Douaumont Ossuary, a massive artillery shell-shaped building, contains the remains of 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers. The surrounding battlefield — the Zone Rouge — remains pockmarked with shell craters and is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Funerary and Memory sites of the First World War. The key sites to visit are Fort Douaumont (the largest and most heavily fought-over fort), Fort Vaux (where the French garrison's last carrier pigeon saved the fort), and the Tranchée des Baïonnettes (where a platoon was buried alive in their trench).
Perched at 757 metres in the Vosges foothills, Haut-Koenigsbourg is the most visited castle in Alsace, drawing over 500,000 visitors annually. Originally built in the 12th century, it was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War (1633) and left in ruins until Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered its reconstruction in 1908 as a symbol of the German Empire's claim to Alsace. The restoration is considered one of the best examples of historicist reconstruction in Europe — it shows what a medieval fortress looked like in its heyday, complete with furniture, weaponry, and kitchen equipment from the period. The views from the ramparts are breathtaking — on clear days you can see the Black Forest, the Rhine plain, and the Alps. The castle is 20 km north of Colmar and 50 km south of Strasbourg.
Day 1: Cathedral morning (climb the tower), Petite France afternoon (boat tour + walking), dinner at a winstub. Day 2: European Parliament tour morning, Alsace Wine Route afternoon (day trip to Obernai and Ribeauvillé via TER train).
Day 1: Reims Cathedral morning, Taittinger cellar tour afternoon, dinner at Le Parc au Charron. Day 2: Épernay day trip — Avenue de Champagne, Moët & Chandon tour, lunch at La Table du Château, afternoon in Hautvillers (Dom Pérignon's abbey). Base yourself at Reims for the weekend.
Days 1–2: Strasbourg (cathedral, Petite France, European quarter). Day 3: Colmar day trip via train — Petite Venise, Unterlinden Museum, evening tarte flambée. Day 4: Alsace Wine Route by car (Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, Eguisheim). Days 5–6: Reims (cathedral, Champagne cellars, Pommery or Taittinger). Day 7: Nancy (Place Stanislas, Musée des Beaux-Arts) or Metz (Centre Pompidou-Metz, cathedral). Return via TGV from either Nancy (1h30 to Paris) or Reims (45 min).
Read more: Best Time to Visit Grand Est · Grand Est Food Guide · Éco-Hôtels à Grand Est
Most major Champagne houses in Reims accept walk-in visitors, but advance booking is strongly recommended — especially in summer and during the harvest season (September–October). Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, and Pommery all have multilingual tours. Prices range from €20–40 per person. The Champagne region also has a tourist train (Le Petit Train du Champagne) that runs between Reims and Épernay for a scenic overview of the vineyards.
To properly experience the Route des Vins d'Alsace, allow 3–4 days. The full route runs 170 km from Marlenheim to Thann. The essential section is between Strasbourg and Colmar — the stretch through Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, and Eguisheim contains the most beautiful villages and the highest concentration of Grand Cru vineyards. A day trip from Strasbourg to Colmar via train is possible but rushed — staying a night in Colmar or one of the wine villages is preferable for the full experience.
The TGV and TER train network is excellent for intercity travel: Strasbourg to Reims (1h50), Metz to Nancy (35 min), Strasbourg to Colmar (30 min). Within cities, tram networks are comprehensive (Strasbourg, Reims, Metz, Nancy, Mulhouse all have excellent systems). For the Route des Vins and the Vosges mountains, a car is recommended to reach the hilltop wine villages and hiking trailheads. Bike rental is available in most cities — the EuroVelo 5 (Via Romea) runs along the Rhine, and dedicated cycle paths connect many wine villages.