Fodor's Expert Review Hôtel Groslot

Just across the square from the cathedral is the Hôtel Groslot, a Renaissance-era extravaganza bristling with caryatids, strap work, and Flemish columns. Inside are regal salons redolent of the city's history (this used to be the Town Hall); they're done up in the most sumptuous 19th-century Gothic Troubadour style and perhaps haunted by King François II, who died here in 1560 by the side of his bride, Mary, Queen of Scots.