Situated on the Franco-German border, lovely Strasbourg has been passed back and forward between the two countries for years.

The result is a city and people with a distinctive local identity, combining the reputed efficiency and energy of the Germans with the joie de vivre and sophistication of the French.

Strasbourg is far enough away from the capital to be truly independent on a cultural level, with its own opera, France's only national theatre outside Paris, two international music festivals and Europe's only bi-national TV station, Arte.

Its symbolic significance as a major European city was confirmed when it was chosen as the seat of the Council of Europe in 1949, the European Court of Human Rights in 1994 and, finally guaranteed in 1992, the European Parliament.

The Grande Ile (Big Island), in the midst of the River Ill, is the ancient heart of the city, with the vast main square, place Kléber at its centre. Close by is place Gutenberg - named after 15th-century Strasbourg resident Johannes Gutenberg, famed for his development of printing. 

Strasbourg's great landmark is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in the Vieille Ville (Old Town), which has remained unchanged since the Middle Ages. Around the Cathedral clusters an impressive array of museums, cafes and restaurants.

The city centre's attractive main shopping streets Rue des Grandes Arcades and parallel Rue des Francs Bourgeois are remarkably small and pedestrian friendly. Stunningly picturesque Petite France, in the Grande Ile's southwestern corner, is Strasbourg's medieval quarter and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its bridges and canals, half-timbered houses and narrow streets, it could not be more different from the ultra-modern City of Europe in northeast Strasbourg where the EU institutions are located.