Colmar, France

Summary

Airport Rating N/A
Reception of locals ****
Cost: £££££

• A relatively small city in the eastern French region of Alsace
• Beautifully preserved old town full of labyrinth streets and beautiful architecture
• No issues as a Sikh in the city
• Main Sights: Maison Pfister, St Martin's Church, Maison Adolph, Water Tower, Unterlinden Museum, Little Venice

A consequential city

I've never visited the eastern side of France before, but a recent trip to Basel (that you can read about here) gave me an opportunity to cross the border into France and check out Colmar, the third largest city in the Alsace region. 

The earliest known mention of Colmar dates back to the 9th century during the Carolingian period and by the 13th century Colmar had begun to grow in significance. In 1226, Emperor Frederick II granted it the status of a free imperial city, which allowed the town a considerable degree of autonomy which led to economic growth.

Colmar flourished over the following centuries, benefitting from a strong tradition of wine production and trade, aided by its position along two rivers, the Ill and the Lauch. During the Reformation, Colmar, like much of Alsace, experienced religious upheaval, followed by military occupation during the Thirty Years’ War. In 1632, it was taken by Swedish forces, and by the mid-17th century, it had gradually been absorbed into the expanding French kingdom with formal annexation in 1678.

Following the French Revolution, Colmar became the administrative centre of the Haut-Rhin department in 1790. The arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, linking Basel, Strasbourg, and Colmar, helped to integrate the town further into national and regional trade networks. This period saw the introduction of modern infrastructure, including piped water and a tram system, as well as growth in light industry.

The region where Colmar is situated has arguably shaped the modern world more than any other region on the planet. Colmar is the third largest city in Alsace; a region of France lost to Germany in 1871 and a key driver to the First World War​. For almost half a century, the French, driven by a desire for revenge, were waiting for the opportunity to win back the province and this desire was a key component of the world shaping events of 1914.

Today, Colmar is known as a city with one of the best-preserved historic towns in Alsace. It's a relatively small city of around 70,000 people, but the population swells during the summer with tourists from around the world. It's the historic old town that drove me to visit recently.

Switzerland - France

From Basel, getting the Colmar was pretty straightforward. I boarded a train at the main Basel's main train station and within 45 minutes (and two stops) I was in Colmar. 

You have a couple of options using a train, the high-speed TGV is slightly more expensive, but both the faster and slower speed trains offer a comfortable journey. The surrounding area including Mulhouse is heavily foreign born and so pretty much everyone on the train seemed to be either eastern European or north African. It's something I associate with larger cities (like in England) so it was a little surprising seeing it out here.

Prices are reasonable, I paid about £20 for a return and considering the fact that I crossed a border, I think that's a decent price. There were no border checks, and I changed station at Mulhouse without any issues, and I arrived into a small but beautifully designed train station in Colmar.

The Old Town

Colmar is best known for its old town, and it's the reason I decided to make the trip from Basel. If you've been reading my articles on European cities before, you'll know I love old towns. Perhaps because in both the UK and Panjab we sometimes struggle with retaining historically significant areas outside major landmarks that I find these old towns so fascinating.

​Colmar’s Old Town is widely recognised as one of the most picturesque and well-preserved historic centres in France. The Old Town’s layout is largely unchanged from previous centuries, with a network of narrow cobbled streets, timber-framed buildings, and open squares that reflect the town’s evolution from the Middle Ages through to the early modern period.

From the train station it was a very short 20-minute walk into the heart of the old town, and I've got to say it is almost indescribably stunning. It felt so surreal, almost like a film set. A defining feature of Colmar’s historic centre is its distinctive Alsatian architecture. The town’s houses, many dating from the 14th to 18th centuries, are noted for their steeply pitched roofs, exposed wooden beams, brightly painted facades, and ornate carvings.

These buildings were often the homes of merchants and skilled craftsmen, and their size and decoration reflected the prosperity of their owners. The structures are typically constructed using a half-timbered technique, in which a timber frame is infilled with plaster or brick, allowing for both structural flexibility and aesthetic individuality.

The old town is like a maze, with narrow cobblestone streets with surprises around every corner. It could be square, a museum, a beautiful shop, a market, or a church. In fact the Collégiale Saint-Martin, or St Martin’s Collegiate Church is a great example of this. Dating largely from the 13th and 14th centuries, the church is considered a fine example of Alsatian Gothic architecture. Built on the site of an earlier Romanesque structure, it features stained glass windows, sculpted capitals, and a distinctive, green-tiled roof. 

Another beautiful building is the Maison Pfister which was constructed in 1537 and is an example of early Renaissance architecture. Despite retaining the timbered structure of medieval Alsace, it introduces Renaissance elements and looks as close to building from a Disney film as I have ever seen. 

The Koïfhus, or Ancienne Douane (Old Customs House), is another key building within the Old Town. Dating back to the 15th century, it served as a central trading post and customs house when Colmar was a free imperial city. Located at the junction of major trade routes, it symbolised the town’s commercial importance and housed the town council on its upper floors. Today it continues to be used for cultural events and exhibitions and was hosting a market during my visit.

The old town is a decent size. It doesn't have the scale of the old town in Naples (which remains my favourite, you can read about it here) but its Alsatian architecture with different coloured buildings is striking. Each street has something worth exploring, whether it's a restaurant, a nationally famous museum like the Unterlinden with its religious art, or even a gingerbread museum (I went inside, it's a little tacky).

La Petite Venise

The thing that sets the old town in Colmar apart from the many other old towns that I have visited are the canals that run through the neighbourhood. In fact, "La Petite Venise" is among the most iconic and recognisable parts of the town and is located in the southern portion of the Old Town.

The canals of Colmar are fed by the River Lauch, a tributary of the River Ill, which itself flows into the Rhine. Historically, the waterways in this area were not decorative but served a vital economic function. The Lauch was used by tanners, butchers, millers, and market gardeners as a means of transporting goods through the town. Flat-bottomed boats carried produce from nearby fields into Colmar’s market halls, while tradespeople worked from properties whose cellars and workshops backed directly onto the canal. Remnants of these practical uses can still be seen today in the way some buildings step directly down to the water or have openings at water level designed for unloading cargo.

Over time, as the industrial needs of the town evolved, the function of the canals gradually shifted from utility to heritage. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, civic authorities began to recognise the aesthetic value of the canal district. Rather than being filled in or built over, as happened in many other European towns (including parts of the canal in my hometown), the waterways were preserved and gradually became part of Colmar’s identity as a heritage town.

La Petite Venise is particularly notable for its architectural continuity. The houses lining the canals date from the 15th to 18th centuries and are typical of Alsatian timber-framed construction. Many are painted in soft pastel tones - greens, pinks, blues, and yellows - that reflect in the still water below which really make this canal stand out. You won't find this type of beauty in the canals of the Midlands.

The bridges that cross the canals provide key vantage points for viewing the area and it's filled with people trying to take photos. From the bridge at Rue Turenne, you can see a particularly famous stretch of canal flanked by flower boxes and ivy-covered buildings and this bridge was particularly popular. 

You can also take boat trips along the canal - they're pretty short at about 20 minutes and they don't go very far, but it provides a different view of the architecture of the old town.

German Engineering

Between the old town and the train station is the Parc du Chateau d'Eau and within the grounds of the park is another famous landmark, Colmar's water tower. ​It was completed in 1886 during the period of German administration and the tower was part of a wider initiative to modernise Colmar’s public infrastructure. Built using local pink Vosges sandstone and designed in a neo-Romanesque style, the tower not only served a vital practical function but also became an architectural landmark in its own right.

Standing at about 53 metres tall, the water tower was designed to provide Colmar with a stable and elevated supply of drinking water. The structure houses a large cast-iron tank, which once supplied water to the surrounding neighbourhoods through a gravity-fed system. Though it no longer serves as part of the active water distribution network, the tower remains a listed historic monument and is preserved as a key example of 19th-century municipal engineering.

The park surrounding the water tower offers a quiet, green space in what is otherwise a residential and civic area of the town. It's laid out in a typical 19th-century style, with wide gravel paths, shaded avenues, and a central lawn that opens up views of the tower from multiple angles. 

It seemed to fit into the surrounding area so well, and as I walked through the park and past several houses and the court of appeal, I realised just how lucky the residents of this town must be to have all this on their doorstep. 

Would I recommend visiting Colmar?

If you're close by, Colmar is definitely worth the day trip (and that's probably as much as you need). The old town and canal system are absolutely spectacular and while the surrounding areas of the town are quiet and more "modern", there are still some pretty cool landmarks, like the water tower.

I had no issues as a Sikh getting into Colmar on the train or within the city, but I stuck to the famous attractions. The walk between the train station and the old town was beautiful, it's quite residential but the houses are well maintained and seem affluent. If you have a day spare and you're in the area, you should check out Colmar.