Colmar

An Alsatian city whose old town centre survived the Second World War almost entirely intact, preserving a dense concentration of half-timbered houses from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries in a palette of pastel colours. The Petite Venise quarter, where the Lauch river passes beneath flower-covered bridges and tanner's houses, is the most photographed section of the city. Colmar is also the gateway to the southern Alsace Wine Route through the Vosges foothills.