Our morning trip was to Strasbourg, and more specifically the Unesco site of La Petite France.

The largest port on the Upper Rhine, Strasbourg is the cultural center of France’s Alsace region. Thanks to its location at the border of France and Germany, it boasts a convivial mix of cultural influences. The well-preserved Old Town is enclosed on all sides by the little Ill River.

Petit France is the jewel of Strasbourg

With its half-timbered houses, lacy canals and flower-filled squares, Petite France is part of Strasbourg’s Grand Ile UNESCO World Heritage Site and the city’s most romantic spot. But the story behind the name is not so romantic. When Strasbourg was a Free City of the Holy Roman Empire, the Grand Magistrate isolated the sick in the tanners’ district. French soldiers were sent to the Hospice des Vérolés to be treated for syphilis, which they had contracted in Italy. The local people referred to it as “the French disease” and derisively called the hospital area “Petite France.” Today, it is the city’s most picturesque quarter.

Strasbourg Cathedral, officially called the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, is a study in superlatives.

Built between 1015 and 1439, it is acclaimed as one of the world’s most beautiful examples of high or late Gothic architecture (though many sections are built in the Romanesque style).

With a spire that soars 466 feet into the air, it is the world’s sixth-tallest church and the highest extant building cnstructed entirely during the Middle Ages.

Until 1874, it was the tallest building in the world, and it can be seen across the plains of Alsace as far away as the Black Forest and the Vosges Mountains.

Monumental scale notwithstanding, the cathedral appears (in the words of Victor Hugo) as “a light and delicate marvel,” a vision of breathtaking beauty with its lacy, pink sandstone façade, intricate decoration and exquisite sculptures, paintings and stained glass.

After reading that, we had to go look inside.