Friday morning, after a delightful breakfast of fresh croissants, an egg, coffee, and juice, we decided to visit the little hamlet of Hunawihr.  I read that Hunawihr is considered one of France’s most beautiful villages, much like Riquewihr is.  We’ve been to Riquewihr several times, so we didn’t visit there during our latest visit.

A couple of shots of the view near where we were staying in Ribeauville.

 

Hunawihr is not even two miles from Ribeauville.  On a nice day, you could easily walk there and then onward to Riquewihr.  As it turns out, the village is small and residential, but well worth strolling though.  There are some lovely views of vineyards and several places sell wines and offer tastings.  I also noticed a couple of restaurants.  During the warmer months, you can visit the butterfly gardens.  There is also an animal park and aquarium located there.  We just missed the end of the 2017 season, which concluded on November 4th.

Below are some pictures of Hunawihr.  We weren’t able to stay long because it was starting to rain.

Bill checks out the people from Hunawihr who died at war.

Grape vines in the fall!

It would be hard to get lost in Hunawihr, but here’s a map anyway.

After our short visit to Hunawihr, we walked around Ribeauvillé in search of lunch.  I took some more photos of the town, which remains picturesque every time we visit.  Unfortunately, every time we go to Ribeauvillé, the weather is kind of crappy.  I guess it would help if we went during the spring or summer instead of November, January, and February.  Still, even when it’s cloudy, it’s a very cute town.  I prefer it to touristy Riquewihr, which always seems to be teeming with visitors even when the weather is poor.

Fresh game perhaps?

At the very least, you can always count on the availability of good food…

The pastries are worth stopping for.

We were determined to try different restaurants during this visit and we succeeded.  For Friday’s lunch, we visited S’Garwer Stub.  This restaurant on the main drag through Ribeauvillé is usually packed.  Having visited there, I can see why.  The food is good and the dining room is positively tiny.

We were squeezed into a back corner.

A lovely bottle of red…

Bill had some kind of meat pie.  It was a pastry stuffed with ham.  Actually, if I’m honest, it reminded me a little of Spam.  When I was in kindergarten, I went to a British school and they served something similar for lunch.  As you can see, it came with plenty of salad.

I went with Quiche Lorraine.  It was pretty good– better than the last quiche I had back in February, but not quite as good as the Quiche Lorraine I had at nearby Chez Martine in January.  

For dessert, Bill had the Tart de la Maison– it was kind of like cherry cheesecake… 

I went with creme brûlée.  

We were pretty full after lunch, so we walked around a little bit more and then went back to the apartment.  Bill turned on the TV and we watched some pretty horrible French reality shows.

Hard to believe one can watch this just a couple of hours away from Stuttgart.

We weren’t all that hungry when it was dinner time, but I was determined to keep trying restaurants.  So we ventured to another tiny Winstub…

I had been curious about this place, which appears to be very quaint from the outside.  Step indoors and, sure enough, you will be greeted by a tiny but adorable interior.

 

Once again, we ended up sharing a table because we didn’t have reservations.  Three French guys with big appetites sat with us.  I kind of got the sense they were kind of making fun of us until I reacted to the size of some of their dishes…

I had a zander filet.  It came with loads of sauerkraut, butter sauce, sweet potatoes and other root vegetables, and contemptible mushrooms.  Fortunately, Bill was kind enough to remove them for me.  It’s good that I didn’t order the steak, because one of the guys at our table did and it was loaded with mushrooms.  Blecch!  The fish was okay, but I probably wouldn’t order it again.

Bill had pork cheeks, which came with a sausage.  I probably should have had what he had.  It was really good.  The pork cheeks were flavorful and tender and there was no fungus on the plate.

Then we had dessert.  Bill had what amounted to French toast served with gingerbread liqueur and gingerbread ice cream.   

I had chocolate mousse.  The way this was served reminded me a little of liver pate.  Fortunately, it tasted good.  

To be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed with the food at Winstub Pfifferhus.  The interior is very cute, though, and it was kind of fun to watch the French guys dig in to their three course meals.  I think Bill and I have gotten to the age at which it doesn’t take much to satisfy us and keep us fat.  We went to bed early, only to be awakened at about 3:00am by our dog, Zane, who needed a potty break.

One bad thing about the apartment we rented is that it’s in a built up area and not that close to a place where a dog can pee in peace.  For some reason, our dogs reacted a lot to the smells in Ribeauvillé and started baying.  Now… we hate it as much as anyone does when the dogs get excited and make a lot of noise, especially in the middle of the night.  However, it’s not always easy to predict when this will happen and, when it does, it’s pretty hard to shut them up.  It can seem like the longest minutes of the day when the dogs go off, especially in the wee hours of the morning…

Anyway, Bill brought them back inside and all was well until later on Saturday.  Tune in next time for that story.