La Petite France: half-timbered houses and canals
The old tanners' quarter, its timber-framed houses leaning over the canals: the most photographed corner of Strasbourg, at its best early in the morning.
This is the picture everybody has in mind before arriving: half-timbered houses leaning out over the water, locks, wooden bridges. La Petite France is the old quarter of the tanners, millers and fishermen, and its present shape dates from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when hides dried under the open lofts you can still pick out today.
What to see
The heart of the quarter fits into a handful of streets: the rue du Bain-aux-Plantes and its facades of 1572, the place Benjamin-Zix and its terraces, and the locks where you watch the boats rise and fall. Ten minutes on foot takes you west to the Ponts Couverts and the Barrage Vauban, or east to the place Gutenberg.
When to go
Early in the morning, or after 6pm. Between 11am and 5pm one group follows another through narrow lanes and taking a photograph becomes an exercise in patience. In winter the quarter is lit from mid-November and stands up to rain very well: the canals gain in reflections what the sky loses in light.
Do not make the mistake of giving it half a day
The quarter is superb but compact: an hour is enough to walk it, two if you sit down. Plenty of visitors spend half their trip here and miss the Neustadt, the German-built quarter that starts twelve minutes away and looks nothing like it.
The full nine-stop walk is in our guide to La Petite France.
Sources: Google Maps data collected in July 2026 (rating, reviews, address), City of Strasbourg notices. Hours and prices change: check the day before you visit.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to pay to visit La Petite France?
How much time should you allow for La Petite France?
Théo Lindner
Théo grew up between Strasbourg and the Vosges. He walks every route before publishing it, times every leg, and would rather cut a stop than pretend a day is longer than it is.
