France was the second country in mainland Europe I checked off my travel bucket list! I Airbnb’d the cutest, (read: tiniest!) sixth floor (read: spiral staircase!) apartment with Eiffel Tower views for my first leg in Paris. After four days, I booked a ticket on the high-speed TVG train for the two hour trip east to Strasbourg.

     Strasbourg, in the famed Alsace region, sits on the Rhine and is within biking distance of the German border. Prioritizing location, I stayed in the heart of the city-center, a stone’s throw from the famed Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame.

     Recommended activity: a four hour city bike tour with Cyclorama. I’m a huge advocate for bike tours and food tours–they give you a great layout of the city, the hottest neighborhoods, a dose of history, and local insights. Cyclorama’s tour even takes you over the border for a quick stop in Kehl, Germany!

Below are a few, quick iPhone pictures I snapped in Strasbourg (And one from Paris…I couldn’t help myself). All editing done in Photoshop.

A city is better seen when one simply wanders.

The Prussian architecture of Strasbourg’s Palais du Rhin (Palace of the Rhine). Construction was completed in 1889.

The European Parliament as seen on my Cyclorama small group bike tour.

 A trip across one of Strasbourg’s many famed bridges.

Over the Seine in Paris. Heart Heart Heart. (Faux tilt-shift accomplished in Photoshop!)