2026-05-05 Ribeauvillé

With only a few days left for Dale & Kim and Janis & Clark, we need to make everyday count. Today we plan to visit Ribeauvillé, just 24 km away (23). 

This town is too large to be a Plus Beau Village, but is known as a tourist attraction, even among the French. We plan to discover why.

Near where we parked was this tower with a stork's nest on it

We can't resist stork photos and this one turned out great.

   

It's threatening rain, so we packed the rain coats for the first time since arriving. We also packed our lunch, planning to eat that somewhere picturesque in town. On arrival in Ribeauvillé, it's clear that it's a big  tourist town as we passed many large (for France) parking lots on our way to center town. Since it's early spring, there were not an overwhelming number of tourists in town today. There were however, lots of cars on very narrow streets with little room for pedestrians.

Grand Rue is the main street through town. Cars used this street.

Notice the two castles looking over the town, Built by the Ribeaupierre family who were the lords of the town.

First stop is the Post Office to mail postcards. The two women working were very helpful and friendly. But clearly they didn't sell a lot of postcard stamps to the US. They had to hunt some down from their safe.

Waiting outside the post office.

Buying stamps.

The tourist office a block from where we parked was our first stop. 

The square in front of the Tourist Office

The tourist office sign

With a walking tour brochure in hand, we set off  along the Grand Rue, the main street of town. We noticed plenty of tourist shops along the route, housed in the ground floors of ancient timber-framed buildings. 

Sign outside a toy store

A walk-up pretzel store. 

There are lots of interesting painted stucco buildings as well.

The Elephant House

This is why it's the Elephant House

The Grand Rue in Ribeauvillé is about a mile long. Toward the far end, we passed the City Hall and the Butcher's Tower (so named because it was the site of the Butcher's Guild) 

The Hotel de Ville (City Hall)

The Butcher's Tower

I was charmed by a potted tree planted in the square near the church. It's called L'arbre á Tetines (the Pacifier Tree) Look carefully and you'll see hanging from it all sorts of pacifiers. The sign posted on the large pot says:  "You’ve decided to separate yourself from you pacifier? Bravo, I know it’s not easy…you are very courageous. When you’re ready, take a little ribbon and attach it to the pacifier. Then, tell it goodbye and hang it on one of my branches. When all the pacifiers are hung, Santa Claus will take them to his workshop and the elves will transform them into gifts. Once more, Bravo for this big decision and above all Merry Christmas."

There are so many more half-timbered and painted stucco houses that I could post, but I won't. Instead here are some pictures with people in them. 

Clark, Janis, and Dave in front of wisteria

Janis and Clark

Clark in front a poster of Jeannala & Seppala, the Alsatian couple in traditional dress - a marketing couple if ever there was.

Dale on Grand Rue

Dave at the Butcher's Tower

You've probably noticed the grey skies and raincoats. It was supposed to rain in the afternoon. But it started sprinkling when we were at the farthest point away from the car and a few purchases yet to make. We agreed to meet at the square by the tourist office to eat lunch there. Not such a good idea. By now it was sprinkling harder. We ate what we could quickly and sped back to our car as the rain fell harder. 

Eating lunch at the Tourist Office square. Not our best lunch 

The stork didn't seem to mind.

2026-05-04 Wine Tasting and Hike to St Croix

 

Time for an easy day. We know we have an appointment for wine-tasting this afternoon and no one was ambitious about a morning activity. So Clark, Kim, and I stayed home while Dave, Dale, and Janis hiked to St Croix and back along the river. First, the boulangerie for croissants. 

Our breakfast croissant

S'landbrot Bakery in St Croix

The hikers went as far St Croix, looked around the town and came back - 8 km (just under 5 miles). They walked along the Ill river path there and back. 

The town of St Croix-en-Plaine is small, much like Logelheim. 

Part of a city wall?

house in the center of town - likely a farm

Janis looks at  flowers in an old well

Like every city there is a war memorial for soldiers who died in WWI & WWII 

After lunch, we drove to Ammerswihr to taste wine at Sick-Dreyer winery. 

Etienne Dreyer now runs the winery, the 17th generation of the winery started in 1563. He has 13 hectares (32 acres) of vines in multiple plots in Ammerswihr and neighboring communities. He told us he produces 40,000-60,000 bottles of wine depending on the harvest which suggests he gets on average about 4,000 bottles per hectare. 

This appointment was organized by Clark based on recommendation from his wine distributor, Laure - the one he and Janis had just accompanied to Bordeaux. Laure distributes wine from the Sick-Dreyer winery  in the Raleigh NC area. So this wasn't just picking a random winery to try. And it was worth the effort.

Etienne and his mother greeted us in the courtyard. We decided to do the tasting in the courtyard to avoid the steps to the tasting room. It was just the right temperature and ambiance outside for this very personalized tasting.

The tasting counter

View from the winery courtyard

tasting in the courtyard

We discovered a cool use for wine corks. I offered to put all our corks in Clark's suitcase, but he deferred.

These wreaths are made entirely of corks

We tasted crémant brut followed by crémant rosé, both of which we liked. Next we tasted three of his Kaefferkopf Grand Cru wines: the Reisling, the cuvée Joseph Dryer Reisling and the Reisling blend. There were a few more. All were excellent.

   

   

Every now and then Etienne had to leave us to take care of some business - at one point he loaded a delivery truck with a palette of wine going to Sicily. Another time he had to leave to let renters into one of his 7 gîtes (like VRBO). He left us with 3 bottles to sample in his absence. Clark gladly took over sommelier duties. 

Clark serving Dave & Lynn at Sick-Dreyer winery

Our only photo of Etienne is  from Clark's video of loading the truck with crémant for Sicily.

Etienne driving the skid loader to deposit the pallet of wine into the truck

At another point his mother (age 80) brought out a bowl of nibbles and chastised him for making everyone stand. She insisted he get out stools for us. 

Etienne was happy to answer all our questions. We learned that three of his hectares are planted on Kaefferkopf plots out of the 71 hectares in the entire Kaefferkopf domain. We asked about heirs to this winery. He has a daughter just finishing her baccalaureate (age 18) and a son who has just finished a degree in business at university. He also has two nephews and a brother who have a winery near Montpelier (not in Alsace) so there's a possibility there. Etienne says he has to work 13 more years before he thinks of retiring, as he is just 50ish. After 2 hours and carrying 8 bottles of wine, we turned the Peugeot toward home.

These vines are in Etienne's back yard, but they don't belong to him. 

Dave set out aperos and Dale grilled pork tenderloin. By the time we finished, it was 9:00. We all went to bed early. We're noticing our age. sigh.