3 Best Sights in Alsace-Lorraine, France

A renovated 17th-century hospital on an island in the center of Épinal is home to the spectacular Musée Départemental d'Art Ancien et Contemporain. The crowning jewel here is Job Lectured by His Wife, one of the greatest works of Georges de la Tour, the painter whose candlelight scenes constitute Lorraine's most memorable artistic legacy. Works of other old masters on view (including Rembrandt, Fragonard, and Boucher) were once part of the famous collection of the Princes of Salm. The museum also contains one of France's largest collections of contemporary art, as well as Gallo-Roman artifacts, rural tools, and local faïence. The museum will be closed for major renovations from October 2023 through 2026.

The small but bustling Vieille Ville is anchored by the lovely old Basilique St-Maurice, a low, gray-stone sanctuary blending Romanesque and Gothic styles. Note its sturdy belfry and deep, ornate, 15th-century entry porch.

This museum is next door to the town's most famous printing workshop, L'Imagerie d'Épinal. Begun in 1796, L'Imagerie has produced woodcuts, lithographs, and other forms of printed imagery that are displayed here, offering a beautiful—and often critical—pictorial history of France.