You need a car to get there – and to move around the site. There are three large spas, Centre Thermal St Eloy (with a more therapeutic-medical orientation), Thermapolis (relaxation for all the family) and Villa Pompéi (offering massage and beauty treatments), which have been built over natural thermal springs there are also sports arenas that include France’s only indoor ski slope, an 18-hole golf and mini-golf course, a “Fitnessium”, an ice-skating rink and an Olympic-size swimming pool.īut the main attraction is the zoo – one of the largest in France. But, just outside, in the Parc Amnéville-Les-Thermes, there is a gigantic tourist site with a conglomeration of attractions, cinemas, restaurants, spas and hotels you'd expect to see in North America rather than Europe.
AmnévilleĪ thirty-minute drive north of Metz lies Amnéville, an easy-to-overlook town off the A31 motorway. The food revolves around Alsatian classics, such as choucroute, all accompanied by local wines (or, in a bierstub, beer). Cake-lovers should try kugelhopf, a dome-shaped cake with a hollow in the middle made with raisins and almonds.įor the classic Alsatian eating experience, you should go to a winstub, loosely translated as a “wine bar”, a cosy establishment with bare beams, wood wall panels and benches and a convivial atmosphere. In almost every patisserie, you’ll find a mouthwatering array of fruit tarts made with rhubarb (topped with meringue), wild blueberries, red cherries or yellow mirabelle plums. Onions, too, crop up frequently on menus, either in the guise of a tart ( tarte à l’oignon), made with a béchamel sauce, or as flammeküche ( tarte flambée), a mixture of onion, cream and pieces of chopped smoked pork breast, baked on a thin, pizza-like base.Īlsatians are fond of their pastries. Baeckoffe, a three-meat hotpot, comprising layers of potato, pork, mutton and beef marinated in wine and baked for several hours, is a speciality. The qualification à l’alsacienne after the name of a dish means “with choucroute”. Traditionally it’s served with large helpings of smoked pork, ham and sausages, but some restaurants offer a succulent variant replacing the meat with fish ( choucroute aux poissons), usually salmon and monkfish. The difference here is the inclusion of juniper berries in the pickling stage and the addition of goose grease or lard. The classic dish is choucroute, the aromatic pickled cabbage known in German as sauerkraut. But the region also has an international reputation for gastronomy, with exciting, new and well-established Michelin-starred restaurants dotted across its towns and villages. Top image: Cathedral of Our Lady, Strasbourg © Travelerpix/ShutterstockĪlsatians are hearty eaters, with their local cuisine characterized by generous helpings of pork, potatoes and spaetzle (a type of pasta usually fried in butter). Gastronomically no less renowned than other French provinces, Lorraine has bequeathed to the world one of its favourite savoury pies, the quiche lorraine, and an alcoholic sorbet, the coupe lorraine. The bloody World War I battlefields around Verdun Dropdown content attract a large number of visitors, as does the zoo in Amnéville Dropdown content, one of the largest in France. The graceful former capital, Nancy Dropdown content, is home to a major school of Art Nouveau and is well worth a visit, as is leafy Metz Dropdown content, with its sparkling new contemporary art gallery. A noticeably wealthy province, Alsace has historically churned out cars and textiles, not to mention half the beer in France.Īlsace’s less prosperous and less scenic neighbour, Lorraine, shares borders with Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. Bustling Mulhouse Dropdown content stands out for its industrial heritage and entertaining nightlife. Ruined medieval castles are scattered about, while outstanding churches and museums are concentrated in the handsome regional capital of Strasbourg Dropdown content and in smaller, quirkier Colmar Dropdown content. This road also represents the region’s chief tourist raison d’être – wine – best accompanied with a regional cuisine that’s more Germanic than French, although you’ll find plenty of creativity in modern Alsatian cooking.
Cute Hansel-and-Gretel-type houses – higgledy-piggledy creations with oriel windows, carved timberwork, toy-town gables and geranium-filled window boxes – are a common feature in Alsace, especially along the winding Route des Vins Dropdown content, which traces the eastern margin of the forests of the Vosges mountains.
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