You will find the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art on the left bank of the River Ill and you shouldn’t miss visiting it as it is the biggest of its kind in France.

The museum was founded in 1973 and it moved into the new building, which was designed by Adrien Fainsilber, in 1998. The museum complex also houses the art library of the municipal museums and an auditorium for concerts, conferences and films.

There is a very good café on the roof terrace and an excellent bookshop that covers art of every kind. It also sells children’s books, toys, costume jewelry and mobiles.

The museum displays Western European paintings, graphic arts, sculpture multimedia and design from 1870 to the present day. It also has a large photographic library and an artistic video collection.
You will be able to admire graphic arts, paintings and sculptures by Gustave Doré; graphic arts, sculptures and stained glass windows by Jean Arp among others, as well as works by contemporary German artists including Baselitz, Lupertz, Richter, Vostell and many more.

There is also a fine range of works by Kandinsky, Monet, Picasso, Pissarro and Rodin. The museum hosts annual temporary exhibitions, displaying the works of an individual artist or an artistic genre.

Of all the French graduation schools, the most prestigious is the National School of Administration, which has been definitely based in Strasbourg since 2005 after being divided between the city and Paris.

The school was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle, who wanted access to senior civil service posts to be open to a widen section of society. Over the years the school has taken part in the selection and initial training of many senior French officials and is a center of expertise on European issues.

It also acts as a center of research and publications about administrative science. The grounds, the main hall and the library are open to visitors.

The school is housed in an ancient building on Rue Saint Marguerite. In 1150 a chapel to the Holy Trinity was built on the site. In 1286 the Knights of the Teutonic Order took over the chapel and built a convent beside it.

In 1371 the Knights of Saint Jean installed here. The convent and chapel became the Commandery of Saint Jean. In 1520 the buildings became a hospital for small pox sufferers. Between 1734 and 1988 it was a prison.

After the building was restored in 1993 the school began to move in, finally investing the entire site. In 2005 the building was extensively renovated and new buildings were put up.

No matter how you arrive in Strasbourg, do take the time to visit the Train Station, which is the second largest in France and perhaps the most unique in Europe.

The station opened in 1883, on the crossroads of the Basle–Cologne and Paris-Vienna axes. It was built according to plans by Johann Eduard Jocobsthal to replace a smaller station that stood in a cul-de-sac.

The 120 metre long station has two stories, the ground floor on the level with the square in front of it, the upper floor slightly higher than the tracks. At the beginning this neo-Renaissance building was for travelers as well as merchandise and it also had a marshalling yard. The goods station and marshalling yard were relocated by 1914.

In 1901 a post office was added to one side of the building and in 1096 a police station was added on the other side. At the time the station had nine tracks but in 2007 when the building was renovated four more tracks were added, mainly for the arrival of the TGV.

The 120 metre steel and glass dome that runs the length of the old building was built by the SNCF (the French railroad company) architect, Jean-Marie Duthilleul. There is a space of 25 metres between the shell and the station front and you’ll find the entrance to the subway here as well as a reception area, the Tourist Office and a café/snack bar.

From this station you can catch a train to Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, in addition to most French towns. If you fancy a day in Paris – the TGV only takes a little over two hours to get there.

Galeries Lafayette is a great departmental store in the center of Strasbourg. It has a lot of boutiques, including those with chic and fashionable products. The building itself is always well-illuminated.

Palais Des Fetes is an Art Nouveau architectural masterpiece, a big concert hall of national significance. A variety of plays and performances, including concerts of classical and jazz music, takes place regularly over here.

Palais de la Musique et des Congres is situated in a green ares spread over seven hectares. It has 2 auditoriums of 1100 and 2000 seats and 22 committee rooms from 18 to 500 seats. Also there is a 8000 sq ft exhibition area.

The European Parliament is housed in the Louise Weiss Building in the Wacken district of Strasbourg, and you can book tickets to sit in the public gallery of this most important institution.

Louise Weiss was a Member of the European Parliament and the building that bears her name called so in her memory and inaugurated in 1999. It was designed by Architect Studio and is a huge building, covering 220,000 square metres of floor space, making it one of the biggest buildings in Europe.

The building comprises 18 assembly rooms, 1133 offices and the famous Hemicircle, so reminiscent of a Roman amphitheatre. It has 785 seats for the Members of the European Parliament, interpretation rooms in glass-fronted booths around the walls and the press and public galleries above.

The building’s tower is 60 metres high and is actually finished – the half completed look with the open west side, is done on purpose to represent the unfinished work of reuniting the Europe. According to popular belief the tower represents the painting of the Tower of Babel by Bruegel.

There is an inner courtyard named “Bronislaw Geremek Agora” after the Polish Member of the European Parliament who died not so long ago. A covered footbridge links the Parliament building with the Winston Churchill Building on the other side of the River Ill.

The European Court of Human Rights is recognized by 47 European countries, but it is not part of the European Union. It was established in 1959 as a Commission and became a full-time court in 1998 when the European Commission of Human Rights was abolished.

The court is housed in an ultra-modern building made of steel and glass and that uses natural light and ventilation in an effort to be planet friendly. The building is designed to be people friendly and inviting; from an aerial point of view it looks a little like a giant bug with two circular chambers like eyes on each side of the entrance hall, with myriad offices in the “tail” behind it.

It was designed by Sir Richard Rogers (London) and Claude Berger, a local architect. At its early stages the designs were enlarged to make a bigger building due to the fall of communism. The architects didn’t want the building to be a monument but rather a symbolic landmark and they certainly achieved their aim. There are four slabs from the Berlin Wall in front of the entrance.

The Court Room occupies one of the circular chambers that is 28000 square metres and has 342 seats all told. The Commission Room in the other chamber covers 520 square metres. There is a large Deliberating Room, a Projection Room, 420 offices and a cafeteria.

If you have visited several of Strasbourg’s magnificent ancient buildings before heading for the Palace of Europe, don’t get a fixed idea that it will look like something out of a German fairy tale or you’ll be rather shocked but its startling and somewhat aggressive modernity.

It looks more like a futuristic scientific building where strange experiments are carried out than a palace, but actually it has been the home of the Council of Europe since 1997.

After the Second World War the assemblies took place in one of the buildings in the University; in 1950 the Council moved to the House of Europe, which was pulled down in 1977 and became the lawns of the new building.

The palace is square and rather like a fortress, with its sloping walls of glass, sandstone and steel. In the central courtyard are two domed buildings, the larger one being the Assembly Chamber, the smaller one is the Debating Chamber.

The palace is 38 metres high and has a floor space of 64000 square metres, with 17 meeting rooms and 1000 offices for the Council’s secretariat. It also houses the office of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

The palace is used by the Committee of Members, the Congress of the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It is open to the public only by official guided tours, which are very interesting and informative about the functions of the Council of Europe.