We
passed by a seafood restaurant yesterday and last night decided to
return there for dinner. A very good move.
We
wandered around the old town,
it looked really beautiful by night.
it looked really beautiful by night.
The
Water Mirror ( Miroir d’eau) provided spectacular reflections
and the fog effect was rather impressive.
and the fog effect was rather impressive.
Today
we explored Saint Emilion,
about
35km northeast of Bordeaux.
The
Romans planted vineyards there in the 2nd Century
and
at that time the town was called
Ascumbas.
Then
in the 8th
century it was renamed after a traveling monk,
Émilion
whose followers began producing
commercial
wine here in the 8th Century.
It’s
now a UNESCO World Heritage site,
built
on a beautiful spot overlooking the Dordogne valley.
The
steep cobblestone streets are lined with charming houses,
fascinating
Romanqesue ruins,
and
an underground Monolithic church
carved
into the limestone.
We
explored the town,
...enjoyed
a delicious lunch
and
took an 'Underground
Saint-Emilion' tour,
during
which we learnt the story of the monk Emilion
and
the carving of the surprising monolithic church.
The
guide led us through four monuments:
The
cave Emilion took refuge in and then
became
his home for the last 17 years of his life,
from
750 and 767.
Inside
the cave you can see the spring,
used
for baptismal water,
his
bed carved out of rock
and
a meditation chair carved out of rock.
This
is reputed to be a fertility chair
and
is apparently well known for its efficacy!
The
Trinity Chapel, with remarkable medieval paintings.
The
Monolithic church is entirely hewn out of the rock and is the biggest
church of this kind in Europe. It is 38m long, 20m wide and 11m high.
There
are some carvings in the stone to see
as
well as four altars added in the 15 to 18th centuries.
The
Catacombs are graves carved into the rock
next
to the monolithic church.
A
cupola was carved out to let light in
and
show the way to heaven.
(no
photography allowed)
Today
we only walked 11.4k's.
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