Quai Saint-Nicolas

Quai Saint-Nicolas is defined by the line of pale, steep-roofed houses that rise directly from the edge of the Ill River. In the seventeenth century, this stretch served as the city’s primary river port for timber and wine. Merchants unloaded barrels of Alsatian white wine right at these doorsteps before rolling them into the dark, vaulted cellars that still honeycomb the ground floors. One winter, the river froze so solid that horses and heavy carts crossed the ice directly to these loading docks.