Took the train from Bordeaux to a medieval town about 30minutes away. It was an absolute gem of an experience.
A short walk up the hill from the train station took us (Kim and I connected with a group of sixteen students and two professors from Mount Royal in Calgary) into the middle of a UNESCO world heritage site beautifully situated amid rollings hills and vineyards reaching as far as I could see. (long pause to catch my breath after run on sentence).
The village itself holds the largest and only remaining monolithic church in all of Europe. Initially begun in the eighth century by a monk named, oddly enough, Emilion, it was enlarged and expanded during subsequent years by those following in his monastic footsteps. The resulting church building is carved entirely out of the limestone hillside.
In addition to the church, nearly 25 kilometres of underground caverns lie beneath St Emilion’s myriad of wine stores, restaurants, macaroon factories and homes. Although these caverns may have fulfilled entirely different purposes in the past, they are perfectly suited to store and age the wines produced by St Emilion’s 5400 hectares of world class vineyards.
Thanks to Antoine (professor at Mount Royal) we were able to explore caverns of four local chateaus and enjoy a tasting of some of their offerings.
