This year, like every year for the past 9 years, the French followed their second favorite personality Stéphane Bern on TV channel France 3 throughout France to choose, on Wednesday July 1, their favourite village among 13 others chosen. “I don’t understand why we go to the end of the world, when beauty is at our doorstep.” Stéphane Bern recently told Télé 7 Jours. And today we can only confirm that what he said is so true.
From all the villages visited (Montpeyroux (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), Chablis (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), Pont-Aven (Brittany), Trôo (Center-Val de Loire), Cargèse (Corsica), Hunspach (Grand Est) , Pierrefonds (Hauts-de-France), Montfort-l’Amaury (Île-de-France), Les Anses d’Arlet (Martinique), Giverny (Normandy), Aubeterre-sur-Dronne (New Aquitaine), Saint- Bertrand-de-Comminges (Occitanie), Ménerbes (PACA) and Batz-sur-Mer (Pays de la Loire)), Hunspach in the Bas-Rhin was chosen, so we did not hesitate to take the road at the first opportunity to go and see it for ourselves.
We got there after an hour’s drive and from the start, we were taken by the beauty and simplicity of the place. What a joy to arrive in this magnificent little village with white half-timbered houses from the 18th and 19th centuries with their so-called “broken nose” roofs where the inhabitants still seem proud to have won this amazing reward for their combined efforts and still seem happy to see people from outside come and view the object of their pride. Hunspach, where the cleanliness of the streets and the blooming of geraniums, roses, agapanthus and other sorts of flowers welcome you warmly. A pleasure for all the senses! Apparently, like in Kuttolsheim, about 700 inhabitants live there, and they too live off agriculture and lovingly maintain their typical houses. The village is made up of numerous farms whose buildings are organized around a courtyard open to the street and directly overlooking the orchards and surrounding fields (unlike other regions of Alsace like ours where the courtyard is surrounded by a high wall and you can’t see what’s going on behind it).
We will definitely strongly recommend it to our guests in future. It’s well worth the trip, combined with a delicious lunch at the Cerf restaurant and a visit to the famous potter’s town Souflenheim on the way home. A great day out!