Bordeaux Region - 8 to 11 Sept

Our Gite is quaint with a lovely view along the river.

From our Gite

A day wandering the picturesque streets of St Emilion. More narrow cobblestone streets & lanes & steps. Ventured up the spire of the Cathedral (196 steps for Anne who went to the top – less for me - too high!!!). Great views of the town & surrounding vineyards from the top. Had a tour of the underground St Emilion catacombs, monolithic chapel & church & the cave where St Emilion lived for 17 years. The church was carved out of a single rock & (apart from the spire) was almost totally under the town – amazing.

From St Emilion

St Emilion streets

St Emilion

St Emilion

Today we headed for the village of Brantome en Perigord (the ‘Venice of Perigord’), which is situated largely on an island in the Dronne River. An absolutely beautiful setting. In addition the 8^th century Abbey is built into the cliffs across the river & the church also originally used the many surrounding caves. The caves in the cliff are still used today as homes for some locals.

Brantome

Brantome

We returned to our Gite via Saint Jean de Cole, another small village with a beautiful old church, stone bridges & a chateau. A wedding was about to start in the church.

St Jean de Cole

We are enjoying travelling along the maze of small side roads which take us through farmland, vineyards & the narrow streets of the villages. We try to avoid the big toll roads though the many roundabouts on the smaller roads can be a drag. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom how the GPS chose the route but we always seem to get there?

For a change of pace we took the train into Bordeaux today & then a tram into the centre of the city. A pleasant journey through vineyards, housing units, industrial areas & then the city. The city is situated on the banks of the Garonne river & is quite beautiful (nearly 50% heritage listed by UNESCO). We used trams, buses & boat ferries to get about.

First stop was La Cite du Vin – an architecturally fascinating building devoted to wine. They have heaps of high tech interactive displays describing everything you could want to know about wine. Heaven for a wine buff. We also had a free wine tasting & for enthusiasts there was a library of wine books, additional tasting opportunities, sensory tests, classes etc etc.

La Cite du Vin

We then did a bus tour of the city to see the sites. The city gates were particularly impressive & the mirror pool. The crowds were the biggest we’ve seen.

Mirror pool - Bordeaux

Time for a break! Today we mostly lazed around our Gite washing clothes, reading & planning our next moves. Visited a local market to stock up on tucker. The market took over half the town & had a huge range of goodies & plenty of characters. Everyone is very excited when they know we are Aussie’s – “Wow! You’ve come soooo far!!

Had a pre-dinner drink at our local Tabac & Bar where nearly all the customers simply purchased a packet of fag’s & left? On return we found our host trying to work out how to get his boat trailer out of the river – no idea how it got there?