Estuary & river cruising & .. Saint Emilion !!

 

After breakfast we started cruising down the Garonne with the tide.  Very foggy this close to the estuary and ocean!  Here's a pic of a French Navy ship waiting to be scrap metal :

Today we headed into the world's largest 'fine-wine' producing region!

Once we reached the confluence with the Dordogne we turned right and headed upriver.   We quickly came upon the town of .. Bourg.  It became a citadel town because it was constantly being invaded since it was an important port and trading center.  Overrun by .. Visigoths, Merovingians, Gascons, Saracens, Carolingians, and Normans.   I think this picture from the ship shows how they tried to protect themselves!

We continued up the river on our way to .. Libourne, where we would arrive after lunch and stay docked overnight.   We passed many many vineyards and beautiful farmlands.  Here's the Chateau de Vayres (orig.built in 1326, rebuilt in 1700) :

We arrived in Libourne.

We opted for the excursion to .. Saint Emilion, a very important town in the heart of very important vineyards.   Here's an aerial view :

The essence of a very 'cute' hilltop town!   Surrounded by $800,000.00 per acre vineyards !!

Like many towns in Europe, it started out protected as a walled and moated town.

Saint Emilion's namesake was a monk in 800ad that fed the poor turning wood into bread.  Two churches were constructed in his honor.  This one 'above ground' :

The foreground part was built in the 12th century, the back in the 15th.

Then the strangest church is the Monolithic Church carved out of limestone.  Here's the picture of the outside and its bell tower.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside .. it's HUGE (and creepy!) ..  This medieval subterranean rock church was an important stop on the pilgrimage trail.

Here's a view of the town from the top (near the base of the bell tower) :

Here's the town's coat-of-arms .. see the monk ?

If you're in the area you definitely need to check it out!   Wine vineyards as far as you can see!   There are forty wine shops in this small town!  Some of the labels:

Bring good walking shoes!  Steep cobblestone streets.  In the summer- lots and lots of tourists!   Still worth the visit.  Back on the ship .. chicken chicken dinner.

and a yummy wine cake dessert .. 

Tomorrow we've picked a trip to an ancient watermill to make some bread!  Remember making Cornish pasty's .. RA & D  ?

Take care, see you there!   Joe & Jan