As you leave the hotel, look up and discover the half-timbered façades of Petite France dressed in vivid colours — and that's no coincidence. At a time when few people could read, the colour of a house signalled its occupant's trade. Tradition holds that blue marked woodworkers, red the ironworkers, green the textile trades, and yellow the bakers. An open-air book to decipher from one street to the next.
Ten minutes' walk from the hotel, Strasbourg Cathedral towers over the city at 142 metres. Begun in 1015 on the remains of a Romanesque building, it took more than four centuries of work before the completion of its single spire, carved from the pink sandstone of the Vosges, in 1439. It notably houses an astronomical clock and the parade of automatons, each day at 12:30pm.
To see Strasbourg from a different angle, hop aboard with Batorama for a boat ride. Along the Ill, the boat skirts the Grande Île, the European district and the Neustadt, with tours from 45 minutes to 1h15 depending on your mood. Departures run year-round, whatever the weather, just a few minutes' walk from the hotel.
Every year since 1570, Strasbourg lights up for France's oldest Christmas market. From Advent to 24 December, wooden chalets spring up around the cathedral and throughout Petite France, just steps from the hotel. Breathe in the scent of mulled wine and bredele, hunt for Alsatian crafts, as the whole city dresses in lights.
