Best Photo Spots in Strasbourg
8 photo spots in Strasbourg, each with the hour it actually works and the angle worth walking to. The difference between a good frame and a queue of people in front of one is usually timing rather than gear.
Barrage Vauban & the Ponts Couverts and La Petite France are best at sunrise; Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg is best at golden hour; Cave Historique des Hospices and Parc de l'Orangerie are best at morning; Christkindelsmärik — the Christmas market is best at after dark.
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, Christkindelsmärik — the Christmas market and La Petite France get genuinely crowded — arrive at opening or accept people in the frame.
On light: old stone blows out under midday sun — the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset are when it has colour in it, open water and open sky mean the sky blows out before the land does; expose for the highlights and let the foreground come up afterwards and markets are shade-and-shaft light — early morning while the stalls are being set up is both calmer and cleaner to shoot.
A general rule that holds across Strasbourg: ask before photographing people, skip anything that looks like a religious rite in progress, and expect a tripod to need permission at ticketed monuments even where a phone is fine.
Medium crowdEntry Free
Barrage Vauban & the Ponts Couverts
- Best timeEarly morning, when mist sits on the water below the terrace and the towers come out of it — the same view at sunset is warmer and has thirty people on it
- ColorsStoneNavyRust
High crowdEntry The cathedral is free; the astronomical clock show is around €3 and the platform climb about €8
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg
- Best timeThe hour before sunset, when the low sun turns the west front from pink to orange — it faces roughly west, so it is flat and grey all morning and lights up at the end of the day
- ColorsRose pinkIvoryDeep green
Low crowdEntry Free to walk in; an audio guide is around €3, and the wines are sold on site
Cave Historique des Hospices
- Best timeLate morning on a weekday, when the cellar lights are on and the room is empty — it is underground, so the hour outside makes no difference and the opening times do
- ColorsBurgundyCreamCharcoal
High crowdEntry Free to enter
Christkindelsmärik — the Christmas market
- Best timeAfter dark on a weekday, when the chalets are lit and the crowd is a third of what it is at the weekend — the market is a night subject and it looks like nothing at two in the afternoon
- ColorsDeep redForest greenCream
Low crowdEntry Free to walk
La Neustadt
- Best timeMidday, when the sun is high enough to reach the bottom of boulevards this wide — the scale is the subject here and it needs light on both sides of the street
- ColorsCharcoalCamelBottle green
High crowdEntry Free
La Petite France
- Best timeEarly morning, before about nine, when the canals are still and hold the reflection of the houses and there is nobody on the bridges — by eleven this is the most crowded few hundred metres in Alsace
- ColorsCreamBurgundyForest green
Low crowdEntry Around €6.50 for one museum, less with a reduction, and free under 18
Palais Rohan
- Best timeLate afternoon from the river terrace, when the light is along the façade rather than into it
- ColorsIvoryGoldDeep blue
Low crowdEntry Free, including the enclosures
Parc de l'Orangerie
- Best timeMid-morning in spring, when the storks are on the nests and the light is on the platforms — the birds are the picture and they are most active early
- ColorsWhiteSageCamel