Strasbourg Old Town & Petite France Walking Tour with Local Guide

Place Gutenberg and the Grande Île

The walk begins on Place Gutenberg, a small square a few steps from the cathedral on the Grande Île, the island formed by two arms of the River Ill that holds the historic centre of Strasbourg. The whole island was listed by UNESCO in 1988, and the square shows why: on one side stands the former town hall of the sixteenth century, now the chamber of commerce, with a Renaissance facade of arcades and carved windows, and in the centre is the statue of the inventor of the printing press, who lived in Strasbourg in the 1430s while developing his invention.

Your guide uses the first fifteen minutes here to explain how the island became a free imperial city, a French royal city and finally the seat of European institutions. From Place Gutenberg every stop of this Strasbourg old town tour is a short walk away: the cathedral one street off, Petite France ten minutes to the west, Place Kléber five minutes to the north.

Strasbourg Cathedral from the outside

Strasbourg Cathedral dominates the city from every approach. Built mainly between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries from pink sandstone of the Vosges mountains, it has a single spire of 142 metres that was the tallest building in the Christian world for more than four centuries. The west front is a wall of sculpture: three portals crowded with prophets, virtues and vices, a rose window almost fourteen metres across and a lace-like screen of stonework that changes colour with the light. Your guide stops here for about a quarter of an hour and points out the details most visitors miss.

This tour visits the cathedral exterior only, which is also where the best photo angles are, from the narrow Rue Mercière. If you want to go inside to see the astronomical clock or climb the platform, the Strasbourg Cathedral opening hours allow a visit after the walk, and our guide will tell you the best time to avoid the queue.

Petite France

Petite France is the district at the western tip of the Grande Île where the River Ill splits into several channels. From the Middle Ages this was the quarter of tanners, millers and fishermen, who needed running water for their trades, and their houses still line the canals: timber-framed facades in cream, ochre and brown, steep roofs with open lofts where hides dried, and balconies of flowers above the water. Petite France is worth visiting at any hour, but the guide times this hour-long section so you see the canals before the crowds build up.

Beyond the houses rise the Ponts Couverts, three bridges guarded by four towers of the thirteenth-century city wall, and behind them the Barrage Vauban, a dam of the 1680s whose roof terrace gives the classic view of Petite France with the cathedral spire behind. Many people ask how to get to Petite France: it is a ten-minute walk from the cathedral, and this walk takes the prettiest way.

The Tanners' Quarter and its lanes

Leaving the canals, the walk threads through the Tanners' Quarter, the streets around Rue du Bain-aux-Plantes and Rue des Dentelles where the leather trade once filled the air with the smell of hides. Today the same houses hold small taverns and family-run restaurants serving the dishes of Alsace: tarte flambée baked thin and crisp, baeckeoffe cooked slowly in a pot, spaetzle and the sweet kougelhopf cake. Your guide explains how the quarter was cleaned up and restored in the twentieth century, how the tanners' lofts were turned into apartments, and which lanes keep their medieval shape.

This is also the part of the walk where you get the practical advice people really want from a Strasbourg city tour with a local guide: which restaurants are good value, where the Alsatian specialities are made properly, and which streets are worth returning to in the evening when the lanterns come on. Expect about twenty minutes here before the route turns north towards the main square.

Place Kléber

Place Kléber is the largest square in Strasbourg and the point where the old town meets the shopping streets. It was laid out as a parade ground in the eighteenth century and is lined on its north side by the Aubette, a long classical building of the 1760s that once housed the guard. The statue in the centre honours the Alsatian general of the Revolutionary era after whom the square is named; he lies buried beneath the monument. In winter the square holds the great Christmas tree of the Strasbourg market, and in summer it is a place of fountains, cafe terraces and tram lines.

Your guide spends the last half hour of the walk here and in the surrounding streets, closing the story of the city from the Roman camp to the European Parliament. Place Kléber is also the easiest place to continue your day: tram lines A, B, C, D and F stop beside it, and the covered-market lanes and the Neustadt district are within walking distance.