Another reason to regret leaving Stuttgart would be losing proximity to France and especially to Alsace. Strasbourg is a truly wonderful city, Alsatian, French and European all at the same time. I've often wondered how it could be so close to Germany and yet be so different.
Last Saturday, we made a quick trip to Pffaffenheim in Alsace - our last chance to buy wine from Rieflé.
Foie Gras au Tokay
We stopped at Fegersheim on our way there and lunched at the Auberge du Bruchrhein. Mmm, how I've missed a simple but good French meal. Hubby and I both had their home-made Duck Liver with Tokay (also known as Pinot Gris). Then he continued with Veal Kidneys while I had Mixed Fish baked in Foil. Eldest Son had a marvelous Mushroom Salad followed by a Grilled Rumpsteak (ah, the cut of the meat!) and a Red Berry Crumble. The Babies had a grilled Beef Filet each with Spätzle and French Fries.
Papillote du Marin
I was pleasantly surprised when we entered the little village of Pfaffenheim. It was so pretty and charming! There was a busload of German tourists on a wine-buying spree and we were just getting a little nervous about having to wait a long time to taste our wine - when a round French guy with an artificial arm came up to us and advised us to go directly to the Rieflé cellar near the vineyards. He was Mr Rieflé himself.
His daughter-in-law served us. She came from a wine-making family herself and it was a real pleasure tasting wine and listening to her talk at the same time. We started with the dry wines (e.g. Muscat, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurzstraminer, Pinot Noir...) and worked our way to what we really went to Rieflé for - their Gewurzstraminer Vendange Tardive...
A few years back, Hubby attended a wine exhibition in Paris and fell in love with Rieflé's Vendange Tardive. When we knew that we would be moving to Stuttgart, we were happy as it would mean - visit to Rieflé!
We ended up buying 3 dozen bottles of white wine (of which 6 were VT) and a bottle of Eau-de-vie. Madame Rieflé also brought us on a tour of the wine-making facilities.
Au revoir l'Alsace!
Auberge du Bruchrhein
24 route de Lyon
Fegersheim
Tel : 00 33 3 88 64 17 77
Rieflé
7 rue du Drotfeld
68250 Pfaffenheim
France
Tel : 00 33 3 89 78 52 21
5 commentaires:
I am doing family history and my family is originally from Pfaffenheim, Alsace. It is hard to find on a map. Would you mind giving me a better Idea of where it is? Do you have any more pictures? I enjoy your blog.
Hi Mike,
It was my 1st and only visit to Pfaffenheim though I really liked the village, very pretty with lots of wonderful wines.
Go to www.mappy.fr and you can access a general map of the village (68250 Pfaffenheim) or an itinerary e.g. Strasbourg 67000 to Pfaffenheim 68250. It would normally take about 1h07 mins by car. Wish you luck in your research. Do you speak French?
I am learning that I will need to to get anywhere in my search. Right now I use Google translator, but it is not very good. I am going to try to connect with someone there that speaks English at try to network to find church and state records. Thanks for the Heads up. Where are you at now in your travels?
French is a beautiful language, if you have French origins, this would be as good a reason as any to learn it. The French are proud of the fact that they separate State and Religion. I suspect that you'll have a better chance with State than Church. They have a centralised service nowadays for birth and death certs which is useful only if you know the names of your ancestors, their year of birth etc. It's an internet service:http://www.administration24h24.gouv.fr/.
Otherwise, you'll have to contact the townhall of Pfaffenheim yourself and persuade them to indulge your quest. Bonne chance!
As for myself, I'm now stuck here in Italy.
Alsace in France is truly a place to visit with all of its tourist spots and friendly people, what more do you want in a vacation. Seeing all the wine vendors made me buy some gifts for my friends back home.
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