Thirty-five kilometres south of Colmar, Mulhouse is a large sprawling industrial city. It was Swiss until 1798 when, at the peak of its prosperity (based on printed cotton fabrics and allied trades), it voted to become part of France. Even now many people who live here work in Basle in Switzerland. It is also the home city of Alfred Dreyfus, the unfortunate Jewish army officer who was wrongly convicted of espionage in 1894 . Not having much of an old town, it is no city for strollers, but there are four or five unusually good - and rather unusual - museums in the town and its vicinity that delve into the region's manufacturing past: wallpaper , firemen, railway, automobiles and fabrics are all given their platform. There is also a jazz festival in August, which is a good time to be out partying in this town, with concerts in the museums, the schools and the streets, as well as in the cafés and bars.
Close to the gare SNCF , just along the canal to the right, is the excellent Musée de l'Impression sur Étoffes , 14 rue Jean-Jacques Henner (daily 10am-6pm; printing demonstration on Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun at 3pm; 36F/?5.49). It contains a vast collection of the most beautiful fabrics imaginable: eighteenth-century Indian and Persian imports that revolutionized the European ready-to-wear market in their time; silks from Turkestan; batiks from Java; Senegalese materials; some superb kimonos from Japan; and a unique display of scarves from France, Britain and the US. Also in the centre, the Hôtel de Ville on place de la Réunion contains a beautifully presented history of Mulhouse and its region in the Musée Historique (daily except Tues: May-Oct 10am-noon & 2-6pm; Nov-April 10am-noon & 2-5pm).