Colmar

Forget that much of Colmar's architecture is modern (because of the destruction wrought by World Wars I and II): its Vieille Ville (Old Town) heart—an atmospheric maze of narrow streets lined with candy-color, half-timber Renaissance houses hanging over cobblestone lanes in a disarmingly ramshackle way—out-charms Strasbourg.

Elsewhere, the Vieille Ville streets fan out from the beefy towered church of St-Martin. Each shop-lined backstreet winds its way to the 15th-century customs house, the Ancienne Douane, and the square and canals that surround it.