The coloured frontages
Yellow, red, blue and pink along the riverbank.
joergens.mi — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Krzysztof Golik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Krzysztof Golik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gzen92 — CC BY-SA 4.0
A quay of timber houses in **vivid colours** — yellow, red, blue and pink — lining the bank of the river Lauch in old Colmar, and after Little Venice the most photographed thing in the city; indeed it is often confused with it, being its continuation. The name is literal: this is where the **fishermen and fishmongers** lived, selling their catch from the Lauch and the region's lakes, with flat-bottomed boats mooring directly in front of the houses to unload. It was a poor working quarter, and its houses are smaller and plainer than the merchants' houses in the centre. Much of it burned in a fire in **1706** and was rebuilt, then declined through the twentieth century until a restoration in the 1980s brought back its colours and its timber. The flat-bottomed boats still work here — but for pleasure rather than fishing: a **short cruise** on the Lauch leaves from near this quay and passes its houses and gardens at water level.
Yellow, red, blue and pink along the riverbank.
A short run on the Lauch, seeing the houses from water level.
The two are one continuous walk.
Quai de la Poissonnerie, 68000 Colmar
Natural History and Ethnography MuseumColmar's Natural History Museum is a nineteenth-century-style museum kept as it 1 minute walk4.3
The Tanners' QuarterA street of timber houses that are **strikingly tall, narrow and long** in the m2 minutes walk4.9
House of the Knights of Saint JohnA Renaissance house built in **1608** in old Colmar, with one of the strangest f2 minutes walk4.2
Place de l'Ancienne DouaneThe central square of old Colmar, turning on the **Koïfhus** — the old customs h2 minutes walk4.9
The Koïfhus (Old Customs House)The Koïfhus is Colmar's oldest public building (1480) and its old economic heart2 minutes walk4.8Worth it if the wait isn't long. The run is **short — about 25 to 30 minutes** — in an open flat-bottomed boat passing the coloured houses and the back gardens you can't see from the street, and the view of the houses from water level genuinely differs and is worth doing with children. But it gets **very busy in summer**, and you can queue an hour for half an hour on the water, which is a poor trade. The answer: go **first thing or last thing**, or outside July and August. It is seasonal and stops in bad weather.
In practice they are one continuous walk along the Lauch and visitors cross between them without noticing a boundary. The difference is historical: the **fishmongers' quarter** was the fishermen's housing, its houses smaller and plainer and its colours brighter, while **Little Venice** is the name later given to the stretch where houses line both banks with the bridges and the boats. The advice: don't trouble yourself with the distinction — walk the bank from the Place de l'Ancienne Douane to the end of the quay and you will have seen both in half an hour.