HIGHLIGHTS

• Sarrebourg: Chapel of the Cordeliers with Chagall's famous stained-glass window.
• The famous "Arzviller" barge lift: raising craft 52 meters.
• Fascinating visit to a crystal factory.

• Saverne: splendid red sandstone palace and typical houses.
• Strasbourg: the stupendous cathedral and the picturesque "Petite France" district.
• Colmar: fairy-tale town with its Little "Venice" quarter.

The Forward deck from above. 

The Lorraine has a superior comfort level inside.

Our cabins are cozy and well appointed.  Each of coarse has private toilet and shower.  Each cabin has large picture windows for lots of natural light.

Cruise to the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, where French and German culture entwine to create one of France’s most bewitching regions.   Colmar and Strasbourg are two of Europe's most fascinating small cities. Enjoy wine tasting, and have a look at crystal-making. Spend time in picturesque villages.  Sample 24 different wines and eat some truly gourmet foods.

LORRAINE

 Cruise to the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, where French and German culture entwine to create one of France’s most bewitching regions. Visit Colmar and Strasbourg, enjoy wine tasting, and have a look at crystal-making. Spend time in picturesque villages and around a gourmet dining table.

Saturday      

Meeting place is the Strasbourg train station at 2:15 pm. From there you will be transferred  to The Lorraine, moored on the East side of Strasbourg.  You will be welcomed aboard and meet the crew while your bags are put in your cabin.  Following the welcome drink our guide will invite you to to board our air conditioned coach for a short tour of Strasbourg as a first brief introduction to this historic town.  Shortly thereafter you will enjoy your first gourmet dinner on board this evening.                                                               

After breakfast we we  take the air conditioned coach to Colmar, renowned for its magnificent medieval and Renaissance buildings, 13th-century collegiate church, and the waterside Little Venice district. This is an all day program.  You will enjoy lunch at a local restaurant in Colmar.  In addition to your guided tour you will have some free time to explore. Stop at the Unterlinden Museum, famous for its Renaissance art and home to the “Issenheim Altarpiece.” We will return to the barge through the famous "Route Des Vins" a small road running at the base of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains, parallel to the Rhine and through the famous vineyards of Alsace. We pause in picturesque Medieval  Riquewihr for a wine tasting of local vintages and souvenir shopping before returning to Lorraine.

We cast off early and cruise over breakfast and through the morning toward Strasbourg center. We enter the heart of Strasbourg and pass through the commercial docks before leaving the city to the north.  We pass the ultra modern buildings of the European Parliament. Here we will disembark for a  guided walking tour of the principal sights of Strasbourg with its cobbled streets and timbered houses.    The unique beauty of picturesque “petite France” riverside district is magnificent.  The remarkable cathedral of Notre Dame, whose construction spread over five centuries from the Romanesque choir to the flamboyant gothic spire, is a highlight. Afterwards we continue cruising to Hochfelden and our mooring for tonight.  There is ample opportunity to walk between locks on the tow path or to bicycle into nearby villages.  Overnight in the picturesque village of Hocfelden. . 

This morning we begin cruising after breakfast passing several typical Alsatian villages  where ancient documents prove there was a brewery as early as 870 A.D. We will visit a small local brewery. All the  best French beers are brewed in Alsace. This day provides us with excellent opportunities for walking and cycling (perhaps diverting to a bierstub to appreciate the product of a local brewery).  Later, a delightful afternoon cruise brings us to the picturesque small town of Lutzelbourg nestled in the Vosges mountains..                                                                                                                                                            

After breakfast we make a short drive to visit a unique crystal factory  to see the most famous products of this area. Beautiful  pieces  of crystal are still individually blown and fashioned by hand.  Back on board, cruise into Lorraine, where the canal follows the steep-sided valley of the River Zorn to the famous inclined plane of Arzwiller. Here, a counterbalanced barge lift hauls us up nearly 150 feet to the Marne to Rhine Canal. We then cruise through a cutting and two tunnels under the peak of the Vosges Mountains before mooring at a quiet spot near the village of Hess.

We begin a morning along the summit pound, the highest section, of the Marne to Rhine canal. This section of some thirty kilometres with no locks passes through the regional park of Lorraine, a nature reserve with numerous lakes and vast areas of woodland. The canal then begins its descent towards the plain of Lorraine through a series of locks, the first of which was built in the nineteen-fifties to replace a flight of seven of the original early nineteenth century locks and has a drop of nearly fifty feet. This afternoon we will take the coach for a drive to Sarrebourg and visit the chapel of the Cordelieres where we can see the stained glass window created by Marc Chagall.  We return to Lorraine for our farewell gala dinner.

Leave the Lorraine after breakfast and coach transfer  to  the train station in  Strasbourg.  We suggest you try one of our post cruise add on packages.

The above is for westbound cruises.  On alternate weeks the eastbound itinerary has a meeting place of the Nancy railroad station by the exit at 1 p.m.  (1300)    The return will be from Strasbourg on Friday.