| It isn't difficult to find your way around Strasbourg on foot, as the city centre is concentrated on a small island encircled by the River Ill and an old canal – moreover it's totally flat. The tourist office can provide a map (€0.50 for the one with all the museums and sights marked on it; free otherwise), but be warned that several of the street names are not marked – on the other hand, there are far worse cities to get lost in. Visible throughout the city is the magnificent filigree spire of the pink sandstone cathedral that dominates not just the city but much of Alsace, though its silhouette is currently deformed by scaffolding likely to be in place for some time due to restoration work. To the immediate south of this building are the best of the museums, to the north, unappealing place Kléber at the heart of the commercial district, and, to the west, more intimate place Gutenberg, nominally the main square. About a fifteen-minute walk west on the tip of the island is picturesque La Petite France, where timber-framed houses and gently flowing canals hark back to the city's medieval trades of tanning and dyeing.
| 
