2 Best Sights in Alsace-Lorraine, France

The humble, stone-and-stucco Maison Natale de Jeanne d'Arc—an irregular, slope-roof, two-story cottage—has been preserved with style and reverence, although there is little to see inside. The modern museum alongside, the Centre Johannique, shows a film (French with English subtitles), while mannequins in period costume recount the Hundred Years' War. After she heard mystical voices, Joan walked 19 km (12 miles) to Vaucouleurs. Dressed and mounted like a man, she later led her forces to lift the siege of Orléans, defeated the English, and escorted the unseated Charles VII to Reims, to be crowned king of France. Military missions after Orléans failed—including an attempt to retake Paris—and she was captured at Compiègne. The English turned her over to the Church, which sent her to be tried by the Inquisition for witchcraft and heresy. She was convicted and burned at the stake in Rouen. One of the latest theories is that Jeanne d'Arc was no mere "peasant" but was distantly connected to France's royal family—a controversial proposal that many historians discount.

The ornate, late-19th-century Basilique du Bois-Chenu, on a hillside high above Domrémy, has enormous, painted and mosaic panels expounding on Joan's legend in glowing Pre-Raphaelite tones. Outside are serene panoramas of the gently rolling, emerald-green Meuse Valley.