Notre-Dame-du-Haut sits on a hill above Ronchamp, at the foot of the Vosges, and it is one of the strangest and most beautiful buildings of the twentieth century. Le Corbusier designed it in the early 1950s and it was consecrated in 1955. The white walls curve and lean, the roof sweeps up like a hull or a hat, and the thick walls are pierced by small deep windows filled with coloured glass. Inside, light falls in coloured pools on the floor, and the whole room feels carved rather than built. There has been a pilgrim chapel on this hill for centuries, and the earlier church was destroyed in the war, which is what led to the commission.
Ronchamp itself is a small former coal-mining town of just over three thousand people, and the mining past is visible in the museum and in the slag heaps. Lure, about ten kilometres off, is the closest real town, with fuel, shops and a reasonable range of cafes. In Ronchamp you will find small restaurants and a bakery or two. The hill is a short, steep climb from the village, with a car park near the top, and motorbikes can get close.
The country here is the southern edge of the Vosges, a landscape of rounded, forested hills, meadows and small lakes, and from the chapel terrace you can look south toward the Jura and, on a very clear day, even the Alps. The roads of the Haute-Saône around Ronchamp are quiet and winding, with tight turns through the woods, and they link easily to the Ballon d'Alsace to the north. Mornings are best; weekends and August fill the hill with coach parties.
The chapel charges an entry fee and has set opening hours that change with the season, so check before you go. Dress for weather, because a wind can whip across the exposed summit even in summer. A newer neighbour, a monastery for the Poor Clares designed by Renzo Piano, lies just below the hill, and is worth a look from outside.