The cathedral façade from Rue Mercière

Strasbourg's cathedral is built of pink sandstone from the Vosges, and its west front is a wall of carved stone with a single spire that made it the tallest building in the world for two centuries. The square in front is tight, so the façade is hard to photograph from directly below; the answer is Rue Mercière, the narrow street running straight at it, which gives distance and frames the whole front between two rows of houses.

That street is the shot. A couple walking toward the camera with the façade rising behind them uses the street's own perspective, and the frame holds together because the houses crop out everything except the cathedral. Move closer and the portal carvings — hundreds of figures — become a textured backdrop at any focal length.

Evening light is what the sandstone is for. Low sun from the west comes straight down Rue Mercière and turns the front from pink to ember red for the last half hour of the day; earlier the façade is in shadow and reads cool and grey. Morning works for the south side and the astronomical-clock end instead. In December the market fills the square and the street, which is beautiful and impossible in equal measure.

Practical: the square and the street are public, free and busy at all hours, so tighter compositions beat wide ones for anything posed. Inside is free to enter with its own hours, but the tower platform and the astronomical clock are ticketed separately — check them if they are part of the plan. Rue Mercière is a working restaurant street: keep the terraces clear and expect deliveries in the morning.