Strasbourg

The Cathédrale Notre-Dame rises over the rooftops of the Grande Île in the pink sandstone of the Vosges, and its single spire, on the north tower, reaches 142 metres; from 1647 to 1874 no building in the world stood taller. The west front is a lacework of carved tracery around three portals and a great rose window, and it turns rose-gold in the afternoon sun. Inside, in the south transept, the astronomical clock, whose mechanism even calculates the date of Easter, comes to life at 12:30: the apostles file past Christ while a cock flaps its wings and crows three times. Some 330 steps climb to the platform on top of the west front, 66 metres up, which looks across the roofs of the old town and the Rhine plain to the Black Forest.

On the cathedral square stands the Maison Kammerzell, its 15th-century stone ground floor carrying timber-framed upper storeys carved with figures. Across the square, the Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame keeps original statues from the cathedral's portals alongside Gothic and Renaissance art. A few steps south, on the bank of the Ill, the Palais Rohan, the 18th-century palace of the prince-bishops, holds three museums under one roof: archaeology, fine arts and the decorative arts.

At the western tip of the Grande Île, where the Ill splits into channels, Petite France was the quarter of the tanners, millers and fishermen, and their timber-framed houses of the 16th and 17th centuries still lean over the water, some with open galleries under the roof where hides once hung to dry. Rue du Bain-aux-Plantes is the street to walk, and locks and footbridges link the lanes across the channels. At the quarter's western edge, the square medieval towers of the Ponts Couverts stand over the river, and just beyond them the 17th-century Barrage Vauban, a dam with a terrace on its roof, looks back over the towers and Petite France to the cathedral spire. Early morning and dusk are the quiet hours, before the crowds arrive and after they leave.

Across the Ill from the Grande Île, on the Quai Saint-Nicolas, the Musée Alsacien fills a group of old houses with the furnished rooms, costumes and crafts of rural Alsace. Back on the island, near the Pont du Corbeau, the Musée Historique tells the city's story in the old butchers' hall. West of Petite France, facing the Barrage Vauban across the water, the glass-fronted Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain covers art from the late 19th century to the present.

North and east of the Grande Île, the Neustadt was laid out between 1871 and 1918 in the Wilhelmine style, with broad avenues, sandstone apartment houses and monumental public buildings, and it shares the city's UNESCO World Heritage listing with the old town. Its main axis runs from the Place de la République, a round garden square faced by the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, along the Avenue de la Liberté and across the Ill to the Palais Universitaire.

Further north-east, along the Ill, Strasbourg is a seat of European institutions: the European Parliament holds its plenary sessions in a glass building on the river, the Council of Europe — an organisation separate from the European Union — meets in the Palais de l'Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights sits close by. The glass-roofed sightseeing boats on the Ill make the trip out from the Grande Île past the Neustadt, and the tram serves the quarter too. Opposite the Palais de l'Europe, the Parc de l'Orangerie sets lawns and a lake among old trees, where white storks, the emblem of Alsace, nest.

Strasbourg eats Alsatian, and the place to do it is a winstub, a wood-panelled wine tavern. Tarte flambée, flammekueche in Alsatian, is the dish to share: a thin sheet of dough spread with crème fraîche, onions and lardons, baked fast in a very hot oven and served on a wooden board. Choucroute garnie, sauerkraut heaped with pork, sausages and potatoes, is the winter plate, and baeckeoffe, meat and potatoes slow-baked in white wine in a sealed earthenware dish, was by tradition left in the baker's oven on Monday, washing day. Breakfast brings kougelhopf, a tall, fluted ring of yeast cake with almonds and raisins. In the glass are Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris and the sparkling Crémant d'Alsace, and since Alsace labels its wines by grape variety, the label says what is in the bottle.

The Christkindelsmärik, held since 1570 and the oldest Christmas market in France, runs from late November to late December across the squares of the Grande Île, with its historic heart on the Place Broglie and its busiest stalls around the cathedral. On the Place Kléber, a giant decorated fir tree stands at the centre of the lights. The stalls sell vin chaud, bredele — small Alsatian Christmas biscuits — pain d'épices and decorations for the tree. Weekends are the most crowded, and in the crush on the squares pickpockets work, so keep bags zipped and worn in front; weekday mornings are the calmest time to walk the stalls.

The Grande Île is compact and largely closed to cars, and walking is the way to see it: the cathedral, the Palais Rohan and Petite France lie within fifteen minutes of one another on foot. The main station stands west of the island, about twenty minutes' walk from the cathedral, and the tram network runs from the centre to the station, the European Quarter and out to the suburbs. Strasbourg is a city of bicycles, with cycle paths along the quays and out of the centre, and bikes can be hired from Vélhop, the city's public bike-hire service.

West of the city, at Marlenheim, the Alsace Wine Route begins its run south along the foot of the Vosges, through half-timbered wine towns and villages such as Obernai, Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg, with the vineyards climbing the slopes behind them. Colmar, the route's main town, with its canal quarter of Little Venice and the Unterlinden Museum, is about half an hour south by train and the easiest day out without a car.