© Lonely Planet Publications 371 Alsace & Lorraine Though often spoken of as if they were one, Alsace and Lorraine, neighbouring régions in France’s northeastern corner, are linked by little more than the Massif des Vosges (Vosges ALSACE & LORRAINE ALSACE & LORRAINE Mountains) and the imperialism of 19th-century Germany. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, the German Reich annexed Alsace and the northern part of Lorraine (the Moselle dépar- tement), making the régions’ return to rule from Paris a rallying cry of French nationalism. Charming and beautiful Alsace, long a meeting place of Europe’s Latin and Germanic cul- tures, is nestled between the Vosges and the River Rhine – along which the long-disputed Franco-German border has at last found a final resting place. Popularly known as a land of storks’ nests and colourful half-timbered houses sprouting geraniums, Alsace also offers a wide variety of outdoor activities – including hiking, cycling and skiing – in and around its vineyards and gentle, forested mountains. Strasbourg, the region’s main city, is the seat of the European Parliament. Throughout France, the people of Alsace have a reputation for being well organised, hard-working and tax-paying. Lorraine, a land of prairies and forests popularly associated with quiche and de Gaulle’s double-barred cross (croix de Lorraine), has little of the picturesque quaintness of Alsace. How- ever, it is home to two particularly handsome cities, both former capitals. Nancy, one of France’s most refined and attractive urban centres, is famed for its neoclassical architecture and art- nouveau museums, while Metz, 54km to the north, is known for its Germanic neighbourhoods, the stunning stained glass of its marvellous cathedral, and the new Centre Pompidou–Metz, set to open in late 2009. Verdun bears silent testimony to the destruction and insanity of WWI. HIGHLIGHTS Crane (or should that be stork) your neck to see the rose-coloured spires and stained glass of Strasbourg’s splendiferous cathedral ( p375 ) Metz Watch storks glide majestically above their rooftop nests in Hunawihr ( p392 ) and around the other Nancy Strasbourg towns of the Route du Vin d’Alsace Marvel at Colmar’s medieval Issenheim Hunawihr Altarpiece ( p395 ) Colmar Take in Nancy’s refined place Stanislas ( p402 ) and art nouveau museums ( p403 ) Be dazzled by the curtains of stained glass in Metz’ Gothic cathedral ( p407 ) ALSACE POPULATION: 1.7 MILLION ALSACE AREA: 8280 SQ KM LORRAINE POPULATION: 2.3 MILLION LORRAINE AREA: 23,547 SQ KM 372 ALSACE •• History lonelyplanet.com 0 40 km ALSACE 0 20 miles To Haguenau (25km); Bouxwiller (40km); Schœnenbourg (45km); Four-à-Chaux (60km) Jardin des To Nancy (20km); Wissembourg (60km); Château de Fleckenstein (61km); Metz (160km); A4 Deux Rives MEURTHE- Paris (450km) Metz (82km) ET-MOSELLE Marlenheim To MOSELLE Kehl Karlsruhe/ Strasbourg Baden Baden Lunéville D400 To Sarrebourg Strasbourg Illkirch- Airport (25km); (10km) Molsheim Airport Graffenstaden Karlsruhe (80km); N4 Frankfurt-am- Rosheim Entzheim Main (250km) Mémorial de Natzweiler-Struthof Offenburg l´Alsace-Moselle Concentration Camp N83 Obernai e Mont n N420 Ste-Odile i Barr D422 h P a r c N a t u r e l R é g i o n a l BAS-RHIN R Baccarat d e s B a l l o n s d e s V o s g e s Andlau Mittelbergheim Itterwiller To Nancy D424 A35 Lahr im N59 Dambach- (60km) la-Ville Schwarzwald Rambervillers A5 D35 St-Dié Haut Kœnigsbourg GERMANY Ste-Marie- N59 Sélestat N420 aux-Mines Bergheim N57 N415 D1B Bruyeres Col du Ribeauvillé Bonhomme Hunawihr Vosges Riegel (949m) Riquewihr Épinal VOSGES N415 Emmendingen Kaysersberg Kientzheim ALSACE & LORRAINE ALSACE & LORRAINE D148 Col de Turckheim la Schlucht Colmar N57 (1139m) D417 Munster N415 Gérardmer des Hohneck Eguisheim Breisach-am- Vallée de Gunsbach Rhein Metzeral Neuf Munster Freiburg- Remiremont Schnepfenried Petit Ballon Brisach (1267m) im-Breisgau N83 HAUT-RHIN Rouffach Bains-les-Bains D430 Massif l l Plombières Le Markstein Route des I Crêtes Guebwiller Schwarzwald N66 (Black Grand Ballon Forest) Bussang (1424m) D431 Ungersheim N66 Écomusée Hartmannswillerkopf d'Alsace St-Maurice Ballon & Bioscope Müllheim d'Alsace Cernay A35 (1250m) Thann Luxeuil-les-Bains A3 D465 Mulhouse TERRITOIRE A5 DE BELFORT GERMANY Lure A36 N19 HAUTE- Basel-Mulhouse- SAÔNE Belfort Lörrach Altkirch Freiburg Airport (EuroAirport) Weil am Rhein To Vesoul St-Louis Riehen (12km) DOUBS To Dijon (160km) Feldbach Basel SWITZERLAND History ALSACE French influence in Alsace began during the Wars of Religion (1562–98) and increased Alsace, just 190km long and no more than during the Thirty Years War (1618–48) 50km wide, is made up of two rival dépar- when Alsatian cities, caught between op- tements: Bas-Rhin (Lower Rhine; www.tour posing Catholic and Protestant factions, isme67.com, in French), the area around the turned to France. Most of the region was at- dynamic regional (and European) capital, tached to France in 1648 under the Treaty Strasbourg; and Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine; of Westphalia. Today one-fifth of Alsatians www.tourisme68.com), which covers the re- are Protestants. gion’s more southerly reaches, including the By the time of the French Revolution, picturesque capital, Colmar, and the historic Alsatians felt far more connected to France industrial city of Mulhouse. than to Germany, but the passage of time Germany is just across the busy Rhine, did little to dampen Germany’s appetite for whose left bank is Alsatian as far south as the the region known in German as Elsass. The Swiss city of Basel. Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, a supremely .