St. Emilion- Wining, Walking, Eating, Wining, Wining...

(August 5-9, 2023) Did I ever tell you that Mr. Large loves wine? He was introduced to some fine red in Italy a quarter of a century ago, and since the man has been on a mission to enjoy wine, mostly red, wherever and whenever possible. And he enjoys going to the source. Also, I am not averse to tipping a few glasses back myself, so there's that...

We jumped on the train from Sarlat and enjoyed the ride back towards Bordeaux and got off at the last stop before Bordeaux. St. Emilion is only a half hour ride from Bordeaux but it might as well be a hundred miles away. This community is composed of many fine wine chateaux producing some of the most lauded French wine in the country. We were told that most of the chateaux are owned by investors but a few are still owned by families. Surrounded by the regions of Pomerol and Bergerac, and across the river from Medoc you can't go wrong with wine from any of the regions in the Dordogne area. St. Emilion is the King of all these regions and it's classification of Grand Cru Classe Reserve is the favored first child. These wines can be stored for 20-30 years in your wine cellar. HAHA!! We ordered a case to be shipped home in November. I will let you know if it lasts beyond Christmas. Let's get real...

Once again, schlepping our luggage from the station, a very fine lady named Celine stopped her car and gave us a ride into town. Turns out she owns a wine store right down the street from our hotel! More on that later.

We found our hotel, more like a B&B (only 3 rooms in the entire place), and to our dismay we were on the third floor accessed only by a spiral stone staircase. Once I explained to Mr. Large what a "garret" is he totally got it. It was like our senior version of La Boheme. Bad wifi! Uncomfortable couch and chairs! 2 inches between the bed and the wall! Bad water pressure in the shower! Coffee pot broken! (I think I told you about my relationship with coffee already. It's a very close one). We decided to "be happy"- after all we were in France-in St. Emilion! Let's go outside and see what's happening!

Our afternoon entertainment came with a tour of the Monolithic Church in town. Yes, I did not know what a monolithic church is either. So, its an entire church made from one stone. One stone!!!! This place was OLD!!! O-L-D as my friend LMD is wont to say. The tour was OK and we heard the legend of St. Emilion, Turns out nobody is sure if he even started the town in 500AD. This was pretty much a marketing ploy to get people to come and visit. As testified to by our guide. Odd that she would admit this on our tour, when her company had just roped us into the tour with the St. Emilion story. I predict she will not be long in her tour guide position with this company.

For the next few days we walked through the town and into a couple of vineyards. We enjoyed our nature walks and marveled just how many vines there were out there, asked ourselves how many grapes it would take to make a bottle of wine and mind games like that. It was very relaxing and we had excellent dinners. I also had my birthday! 29 again! The restaurant gave us a bottle of wine and the lovely Miss Celine gave us a bottle of champagne. We were buying a case of wine and Mr. Large spilled the beans on my BD. But what better way to celebrate than being in France with Mr. Large and millions of bottles of wine?