Remiremont Christmas Market

Every year, from late November, Remiremont Christmas market livens up the Grande Rue and its centuries-old arcades, between Place de l’Hôtel de Ville and the Saint-Pierre abbey church. This sub-prefecture of the Vosges, tucked where the Moselle meets the Moselotte at the gateway to the High Vosges, has kept from its past as the “town of canonesses” a compact old centre where the wooden chalets fit neatly under the arcades. You spend an hour or two here, between lit shop windows and the smell of gingerbread. Independent shops carry the market atmosphere well beyond the chalets, all along the shopping street.

Under the arcades of the Grande Rue, the setting of an abbey town

Remiremont owes its nickname of “town of canonesses” to a chapter of noblewomen that governed the town for several centuries, until the French Revolution. The town’s fabric still bears a recognisable imprint: a shopping street lined with stone arcades, where traders and passers-by move about under cover, whatever the December weather. It’s under these arcades and on the adjoining square that the stallholders put up their chalets, in a setting that owes nothing to temporary scenery. The façades are the real thing.

The town is part of an urban area of more than twenty thousand people spread over six municipalities, the third-largest in the Vosges after Épinal and Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. This in-between scale, somewhere between a market town and a medium-sized town, shapes the Christmas market: the Grande Rue and its arcades are enough to hold all the chalets, on a compact route that’s easy to cover on foot.

In the evening, the arcades filter the light from the garlands and shop windows, with a particular play of shadows on the cobbles of the Grande Rue. This covered architecture also shields visitors from much of the wind and rain, a welcome advantage in a town that gets its share of wintry showers in December.

Remiremont works as a gateway to the High Vosges: the town marks the boundary between the farmland of the Moselle valley and the first foothills climbing towards the passes and lakes. The Christmas market benefits from this pivotal position, drawing visitors from the Lorraine plain as well as people from the mountain valleys who come down for the occasion.

Local crafts and Vosges specialities to taste

The chalets mix crafts and food, as at most markets in the region. Gingerbread, bilberry jams (the Vosges “brimbelles”), matured Munster cheese and fir honey make up the core of the food stalls. On the crafts side, turned wood, pottery, jewellery and handmade Christmas decorations fill the rest of the stalls, with the variety from one chalet to the next that gives small town-centre markets their charm.

The heavily wooded Vosges mountains have long supported local woodworking; the stallholders from the neighbouring valley carry on that tradition, from practical objects to more decorative pieces designed for the festive season. Producers from the Moselle valley complete the offer with jams, honey and dairy products, in a short-supply-chain approach that’s common at Vosges markets.

Mulled wine has its place among the takeaway stalls, served steaming, usually in reusable cups. Under the arcades, the mulled wine is made with red wine and orange, in line with the mulled wine recipe found at Lorraine markets.

The range of small producers varies from year to year depending on who signs up, but the overall tone stays the same: stalls run by the makers themselves, who are easy to strike up a conversation with, far from a mere shop window.

This food offer is part of a wider tradition of Christmas markets in Lorraine and the Vosges, where gingerbread and mulled wine come back from one town to the next, while each stallholder keeps their own variations. There’s nothing industrial about it. Each chalet is run by a producer or artisan you can identify, and talk to directly.

Remiremont Christmas market 2026: dates announced, hours to be confirmed

Remiremont town hall has confirmed that registrations are open for stallholders at the 2026 market, a step that comes before the programme and detailed calendar are published. The JDS listings, which relay the call for stallholders, give the market dates as 4 to 27 December 2026; opening hours are still to be specified by the town hall (checked on 10 September 2026). The town’s website and the Remiremont Plombières Vosges tourist office usually publish details of opening days, any late-night openings and events a few weeks before the launch.

Until the final programme is out, one benchmark is useful. Vosges Christmas markets of a similar size generally open on December weekends, up to the last one before the holidays. Access to the chalets requires no ticket or booking, as is usual for this kind of town-centre market.

Access to the chalets is free, as at most Vosges markets of this size. The Grande Rue and its surroundings, pedestrianised and flat, are easy going for people with reduced mobility. Allow one to two hours to browse the stalls, visit the abbey church and walk on to the neighbouring abbey palace.

The Vosges climate, cooler and damper than on the plain, calls for warm clothing: a hat and gloves are rarely too much under the arcades in December, even if they shelter you from the wind.

The Saint-Pierre abbey church and the abbey palace, memory of the canonesses

The Saint-Pierre abbey church, in the heart of the old centre, bears the layers of a building altered over several centuries. The abbey palace, which housed the abbess and the chapter’s dignitaries, completes this heritage ensemble, which has remained largely intact despite the upheavals of the Revolution, which ended the town’s special status.

The chapter of canonesses of Remiremont brought together women from the high nobility, an arrangement that gave the town a special place in the religious history of Lorraine for several centuries, until it was abolished during the French Revolution. This legacy can still be read in the abbey church, the abbey palace and the very layout of the town centre, packed tightly around these two buildings.

Visiting this quarter during the Christmas market lets you read Remiremont’s history in a different way than through a commemorative plaque: the chalets and lights slip in between buildings that have seen many winters before this one.

The rest of the old centre, with its little squares and fountains, is ideal for a quiet stroll before or after the market, with several façades that bear witness to the same abbey past.

The link between today’s Christmas market and this ancient history lies above all in the location: the same streets that saw centuries of religious and commercial life now welcome visitors looking for a present or a mulled wine.

Getting there from Nancy, Épinal and the Vosges valleys

Remiremont station has TER regional trains from Nancy and Épinal throughout the day, with a walk of under ten minutes to the Grande Rue. Two direct trains a day also run to Paris, which makes a car-free trip to the Vosges from the Paris region simpler.

From Nancy, the road follows the N57 through the Moselle valley via Épinal, a direct route with no notable detour. Train journeys follow the same corridor, with possible connections in Épinal for travellers coming from further afield in the Grand Est. Remiremont also works as a stop before heading up to Gérardmer or La Bresse, two resorts close by road.

Free or reasonably priced car parks surround the historic centre; it’s best to get there early at weekends in December, when the market draws people from neighbouring towns as well as passing visitors.

If you have a whole weekend, the nearby Lac de Gérardmer and the slopes of La Bresse let you combine the Christmas market in town with a day in the mountains, in a single trip from the Moselle valley.

A few ideas for making the most of a trip to the High Vosges:

• Épinal Christmas market, about thirty minutes away by road or TER, for a larger-scale market.
• Gérardmer Christmas market, on the lakeshore, in a mountain setting quite different from Remiremont’s arcades.
• Plombières-les-Bains Christmas market, in the neighbouring spa valley, about twenty minutes away.
• A stop at the abbey palace and the Saint-Pierre abbey church, open during the day, to round off your tour of the chalets.
• Parking early at the weekend, as the car parks in the centre fill up fast in the late afternoon.

As for many medium-sized markets in the Grand Est, Remiremont’s final calendar should follow that of neighbouring towns, published during November. The best thing is to check the town hall or tourist office website in the weeks before Christmas, before planning a trip from Nancy, Épinal or further afield.

Remiremont Christmas market is on the scale of the town: arcades, the heritage of the canonesses and Vosges specialities, where the Lorraine plain meets the first mountains of the High Vosges.