On this short stage shared by EuroVelo 6 and 15 cycle routes you arrive at the French part of EV15 and the northeastern French region of Alsace. The stage starts where Switzerland, Germany and France meet, near the beautiful Swiss town of Basel. A magnificent footbridge crosses the Rhine, then you follow the Canal de Huningue until north of the town of Kembs and the Kembs-Niffer Lock, designed by the great architect Le Corbusier. Here, the routes divide. The EV15 continues beside the nature reserve of the Petite Camargue Alsacienne marshes and Hardt Forest.

EuroVelo 15 continues through Ottmarsheim. This village’s rare octagonal Romanesque church is one of the most famous in the Upper Rhine. Further on, at Fessenheim, a museum focuses on the work of Victor Schoelcher; his family was from these parts and he was central in having slavery abolished across French territories in 1848. The last stop on the stage, Neuf-Brisach was the last fortified town designed by Louis XIV’s great military architect, Vauban. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its octagonal form presents the most accomplished example of Ancien Régime defence.

This stage runs along the towpath by the Canal du Rhône au Rhin. The way is punctuated by c.20 locks and by characterful churches, such as those at Neunkirch or Eschau, before you reach Strasbourg, one of the European Union’s capital cities and claimed as the No.1 town in France for cycling. Strasbourg also boasts one of the finest old centres on the continent, overseen by an exquisitely decorated cathedral. Thanks to the wealth and density of its heritage, the whole historic centre was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as early as 1988.

North of Strasbourg, EuroVelo 15 crosses forests via the Rhine’s flood-prevention barrier, up to La Wantzenau. Then EV15 joins the Rhine itself at Gambsheim, with its great locks and the largest fish pass in Europe. After Sessenheim, visited by the famed German writer Goethe, once in love with the minister’s daughter, the Rhine’s canalized section ends at Beinheim. Back on the Rhine’s flood-prevention barrier, crossing forests and nature reserves like that at Munchhausen, the way leads to Lauterbourg, a fortified town, and last stop in Alsace.