One thing to know about Ribeauville is that there’s no shortage of places to buy wines there.  There are also a couple of great chocolatiers.  We were determined to stop at Daniel Stoffel, the one on the main drag coming into town.  It wasn’t too far from the apartment, so we walked there.  It was probably a twenty minute stroll.  We walked into the store and a young lad offered us complimentary chocolates.  That’s one way to get me to stay and shop!

We spent another twenty minutes or so looking at the very creatively designed chocolates.  Though this store isn’t dog friendly (which makes perfect sense, since dogs can’t eat chocolate without risk of harm), it is very kid friendly.  There’s a play area for them so you can devote your attention to the chocolate heaven you’re in.  They also have non chocolate candy, though I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at it.

A stork I spotted on the way to the chocolatier.  Storks are EVERYWHERE in Alsace.  I never noticed them until this last visit.

A view of the main drag in Ribeauville.

Wine barrels at Louis Sipp, a major winery in Ribeauville.

Ribeauville has bees!

I had to get a shot of this hilarious sign for dog owners.  They are everywhere in the town.

Beer and chocolate at Daniel Stoffel.

Your little ones will be entertained.

I could have spent hours in that place…  But my ass gets enough presents.

 

Later, we went to Le Giersberg for lunch.  It was a very no frills kind of place.  In fact, although I have been told one has to “work” at having a bad meal in France, this place came somewhat close.  What we had wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t close to the best.

Lunch at Le Giersberg

This was my Quiche Lorraine.  It wasn’t nearly as good as the quiche I had the first time we visited Ribeauville when we had lunch at Chez Martine, another local restaurant.  This quiche didn’t seem set and it was a bit too salty for my taste.  I got the sense they made it while we waited.

Bill had better luck with his smoked duck salad.

But we did save room for dessert.  I had chocolate mousse.  It was a lot like chocolate whipped cream, with chopped walnuts on top.  

Bill had creme brûlée.  It was pretty good, but the one I had the following day was much better.

I liked their centerpieces, though.

Outside the restaurant.  We noticed this one took longer to fill up.

 

Later in the afternoon, we decided to buy some Cremant, which is a type of fizzy white wine in France.  It’s much like Champagne, but does not come from Champagne.  So they call it Cremant…  We ventured to Martin Zahn’s caves to get it.

The big winery had art on display, which we checked out.  The prices were pretty high… I think I saw one painting going for about 8400 euros.

But you could simply buy a book if you wanted…

Okay, enough art.

We were there to drop some euros on wine.

We tasted three different Cremants and bought two bottles of each.  The lady who did the tasting for us spoke English.  

I noticed there was a museum and film at this winery, as well as caves.  We didn’t check them out, though.  

But we’ll be back, I’m sure.

Later, Yannick came by to talk to us and show us his other apartments.  He’s obviously hoping I’ll spread the word, which I’m happy to do.  You need a dog friendly place in Ribeauville, Yannick’s your guy!