St. Emilion

We took a regional train from Bordeaux to St. Emilion. St. Emilion is a medieval village about 40 km east of Bordeaux. The trip was a beautiful view of the countryside, passing out of the city and into the vineyards that surround Bordeaux. The train stops at a tiny station in the country, downhill from the town. The walk up to town passes between vineyards.

You can see the steeple of the monolithic eglise as you walk up the narrow streets into town. The church is amazing. We took a tour of the grotto where St. Emilion lived in or around the 8th century, then the subterranean church. The church is monolithic, excavated out of a single block of stone from the 12th to the 14th century. Between the grotto and the church was a chamber of the catacombs, with depressions for bodies of adults laid to rest in the floor, and for infants in the wall.

After the tour, we lunched.

The best part of the day by far was exploring the town. The boys loved finding little streets and passageways.