St. Emilion

Today we drove to St. Emilion, another medieval village in the middle of the oldest wine region in France.  Major wine is produced here... expensive, delicious wine!  We were told it was quite touristy (aka busy) but it was on my list of places to go and it wasn't too far from here.  It was a very beautiful fortified village, but after seeing so many, they all start to look the same after awhile... haha... however, with St. Emilion the difference is their focus on the wine region.  Amazing, fancy, expensive wine shops everywhere!  Well, some wine was within our budget, but generally speaking this is where the most expensive, prestigious wines are produced.

Cobblestones very slippery... and steep streets

The countryside was beautiful... the rolling hills, huge chateaus and castles everywhere, and vineyards as far as the eye could see.  Unfortunately, today was the day I was tired of taking pictures, so I only have a couple of bad photos of the lovely area. That's okay, it's etched in my memory forever.

Then we drove up to  Blaye to check out a citadel in the City.  It sits at the mouth of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers and has been used for many centuries to protect Bordeaux.  Now, there are restaurants, shops and a couple of hotels inside... so it was free to walk around but it wasn't life-changing to see! :-)

From there we headed back to Bordeaux, in the hopes of catching a free orchestra concert at the old theatre in the centre of the city.  It was a bit stressful finding a parkade that wasn't full and it was very busy in town!  But once we parked the car it was fine again.  We headed straight to the Mephisto store, so I could buy a new pair of sandals. I've been wearing my Mephistos this whole trip, for the most part, and they are still great... so I was happy to know that I could get them here for half the price as back home. Luckily they had a pair in my size (not the colour I wanted but black will be nice too.)  Then we headed to the official Bordeaux sports store, where Ruby and Simon bought a Bordeaux jersey.  We also found a few little souveniers and then wandered the long pedestrian street for awhile before heading home.  Burgers and frites on the menu tonight.... not very gourmet but it tastes good when you're hungry!

We couldn't get over how incredibly busy Bordeaux was, on a normal Tuesday evening.  A sea of people!  I love it here.