If you see just one thing in Colmar, make it the Little Venice quarter. Canal connection aside, it doesn’t resemble Venice in the slightest, but it's truly lovely in its own right, whether explored on foot or by rowboat. The backstreets are punctuated by impeccably restored half-timbered houses in sugared-almond shades, many ablaze with geraniums in summer. Take a mosey around rue des Tanneurs, with its rooftop verandahs for drying hides, and quai de la Poissonnerie, the former fishers’ quarter.
Shutterstock / Svetlana Pechenkina
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
23.55 MILES
With its lacy spires, cheeky gargoyles and intricate entrance portal, Freiburg’s 11th-century minster cuts an impressive figure above the central market…
-
0.4 MILES
Gathered around a Gothic-style Dominican cloister, this revamped museum hides a prized medieval stone statue collection, late-15th-century prints by…
-
8.26 MILES
France’s oldest winegrowers’ cooperative, which brings together 40 vintners, was founded in 1895. The huge, contemporary building contains a viniculture…
12.11 MILES
On its fairy-tale perch above vineyards and hills, the turreted red-sandstone Château du Haut Kœnigsbourg is worth a detour for the wraparound panorama…
-
8.43 MILES
Along the main street that threads through the old town, keep an eye out for the 17th-century Pfifferhüs, which once housed the town’s fife-playing…
28.19 MILES
Three régions (Alsace, Franche-Comté and Lorraine) converge at the rounded 1247m-high summit of Ballon d’Alsace. The mountain is a scenic base for…
Parc Naturel Régional des Ballons des Vosges
22.99 MILES
Head away from the crowds and into the serene Parc Naturel Régional des Ballons des Vosges, 3000 sq km of pristine greenery in the western Vosges. In…
15.71 MILES
Ecomusée d’Alsace is a fascinating excursion into Alsatian country life and time-honoured crafts. Smiths, cartwrights, potters and coopers do their thing…
Nearby Colmar attractions
0.04 MILES
For photogenic views of Colmar's canal-woven Petite Venise district, head to this bridge at the top of rue de Turenne.
0.12 MILES
At the southern tip of rue des Marchands is this late-medieval customs house, with loggia and variegated tile roof, which now hosts temporary exhibitions…
0.18 MILES
In the house where Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born in 1834, this museum pays homage to the sculptor who captured the spirit of a nation with his…
0.18 MILES
This Renaissance pile was built in 1537 for Ludwig Scherer, a wealthy hatter from Besançon. With its delicately painted panels, elaborate oriel window and…
0.19 MILES
This 15th-century house is identifiable by its much-photographed sculpture of a marchand (merchant).
0.22 MILES
Delicate stonework guides the eye to the polychrome mosaic roof and Mongol-style copper spire of this Gothic church. Its jewel-like stained-glass windows…
0.24 MILES
Quintessentially Protestant in its austerity, this Franciscan church has something of a split personality. From 1715 to 1987, a wall divided the soaring…
0.3 MILES
Lit by late-medieval stained glass, this desanctified Gothic church shelters the celebrated triptych La Vierge au Buisson de Roses (The Virgin in the Rose…