Ribeauville & Auberge de L'Ill

Saturday September 8, 2007

We had a good night’s sleep, getting ourselves on the French clock – more or less - and had our first marvelous French breakfast of croissants, French bread and good coffee – everyone raved about it anyway.
We headed out early to Ribeauville and found that we were indeed early, since the main tourist parking lot in town was empty. The shops and a small market were, however, open, so we enjoyed the town without the throngs. This remains one of our favourite towns in the Alsace, with lots of flowers and ancient houses. Also, Louis Sipp is here and we had an extensive tasting with the wife of Sipp’s grandson. Since her English was good, we had intelligent discourse regarding everything from the new labels to the differences in varietals from year to year.
After a quick browse at Beauville – the expensive table cloth factory outlet – we headed to Auberge de L’Ill for lunch. Upon arrival, we had an aperatif on the terrasse beside the river Ill. This was a champagne cocktail with assorted amuse bouches. We were then ushered to our table in a dining room that was totally renovated since our visit last year. At our window side table we were then served our first course of lobster on a bed of fennel for all but me who had foie gras. Next came a round of salmon souflees - their specialty – still amazing, of course. Our wine with these courses was a 99 riesling from Louis Sipp. For main course, the ladies had lamb medallions and the gents had veal tenderloin, both with wonderful accompaniments like stuffed tomatoes, wild mushrooms and potatoes stuffed with a mushroom mousse. For this course we had a 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Sinards, recommended by the sommelier. We all selected different cheeses in the cheese course, and found them all extraordinary. Before dessert they gave us what could best be described as a dessert appetizer with a variety of 5 tasty little treats. Dessert itself, was a pear soup with sorbet for all but Jackie who had a callisson with melon and a basil sorbet. We returned to the terrasse for coffee and tea and by the time we were finally ready to leave, we had been at the Auberge for 4 ½ hours. We were probably a few pounds heavier and definitely lighter in the pocket book. Totally worth it!
We then returned to Beauville for a few napkin purchases. We escaped this place relatively unscathed.
Our next stop was Kayserberg for a walk about. This town rivals Ribeauville in wonderful old buildings and scenic streets, but isn’t quite as floral as Ribeauville.
On our return to Obernai, we ambled around a fairly quiet – compared to last night’s fair – town. No one wanted to eat so we stopped into a little bar for a drink and I had an Alsatian tarte flambé. Finally, we viewed our pictures from the last two days before calling it a night. The pictures proved that already we have had some outstanding experiences with lots more to come!