Saints, wine and mistakes!

The area looks like Yamhill County Oregon

You know how sometimes you head down one road with a destination in mind and somehow end up in a different place altogether? I'm not talking philosophically... I mean you actually take a wrong turn that becomes the right turn because the destination is better than the place for which you were aiming. This happened to us last week when we headed a couple hours south to visit Bordeaux and ended up instead in a small village called St. Emilion. We had heard of St. Emilion from Jill's brother whose wife's family have a place in the general area but due to a lack of time it was not high on our list... missing St. Emilion would have been a big mistake.

In the 7th century (yes that's the SEVENTH century) a monk who obviously could not get along with other monkies in their cold dreary abbey up around Caen trudged for several years down the then swampy coast of western France until he found a cave in one of the many limestone river banks in what is now the Bordeaux region. He carved out a platform in the cave on which to sleep and became a hermit monk. Soon the few people in the region decided that this guy, named Emilion, must either be crazy or perhaps someone special, because who in their right mind would live in a cold cave when they could live in a wattle hut made of sticks and plaster made of mud, straw and cow dung? In short old Emi's privacy was invaded and people came away from visiting him feeling better... not, of course, because they got some exercise, fresh air and clean water while camping on the banks of the nearby Dordogne river... but because Emilion blessed them. Hence the story of SAINT Emilion was written.

Small country cottage

Eventually over 10,000 people moved into the region drawn by the climate and the hope that the now long dead Saint's memory would somehow continue to have a positive effect on their lives. There was only one problem... and it was a big one in those day when people rarely drank water due to typhoid... they could not get any grapes to grow, hence no wine... damn! They tried everything because importing wine was costly. Finally after a few centuries of trying every kind of grape they could get their hands on, some guy (a gypsy no doubt) from Romania showed up with a few cuttings and planted them and "voila" they grew like weeds eventually creating what we now know as one of the world's largest wine producing regions, Bordeaux. It now has over 7,000 wineries and 12,000 labels... hmmm maybe ole Emi was on to something after all!!!!

St Emilion is now a medieval village of about 2,000 people and 2,000 wine shops. I have no idea where one would go to buy a screwdriver or pair of socks... the town consists almost exclusively of wine Caves (tasting rooms), restaurants and cookie shops. The cookie shops feature macaroons from a recipe some nun came up with a few centuries ago... it's too bad she was a nun because she would have put Mrs. Fields out of business if she was commercially inclined... good stuff.

B&B St. Emilion

We stayed in a very charming B&B in the heart of the village. Walk out the door and there were 5 wine shops within 50 yards. The streets are cobblestone made from the rocks used as ballasts in British commercial ships that came to buy wine.

Wine everywhere even on the staircase!

Needless to say St. Emilion's reputation as a humble miracle- performing hermit attracted all sorts of other monkies... Franciscans etc. all of whom created structures honoring the goodly saint. Because Emi lived underground in a limestone cave, his followers, over a couple of centuries, dug out the largest monolithic church in Europe. Monolithic means the entire underground church was constructed from the same limestone layer! (Note there is one larger monolithic church in Cappadocia Turkey). If you ever go to St. Emilion you must take the tour of this church... it was truly an amazing feat. Unfortunately one is not allowed to take photos so you'll just have to imagine a domed underground church 90 meters long and 50 or so wide with air vents and glass windows all carved from stone.

The lower part shows the monolithic stone with the later
addition of blocks above and the bell tower.

One mistake the original builders made was when they finally got the church completed and rang the bell to attract the worshipers, no one came because they couldn't hear the underground bells... DUH!!! So they took a few more decades and built a huge bell tower over the underground church with a hole running down into the vestibule where a couple of very strong monks could pull on a 200 foot long rope and call in the masses to mass.

This all worked fine for several hundred years until it was discovered the weight of the massive bell tower was beginning to cause the ceiling of the church to crack... panic time! The French came up with a plan to construct 38 columns in the sanctuary to support the weight. Unfortunately it would have totally ruined the ancient facility and rendered it unusable. American Express, believe it or not, said "wait a minute let's bring in some American engineers and see if we can't come up with a better solution"... which they did. American Express (your fees at work) paid for the bracing on the underground supports and basically saved the church... voila!!!

One of many caverns

9th century arch with bell tower
in the distance

One final note on the limestone in the area.
There are 200 kilometers
 (120 miles) of underground
 passages in the area most
 of which are now used to store wine.

One of the medium size Chateau- wineries

There are hundreds of wineries in the region, large and small

Portable bottling service!

Having owned a vineyard I found this portable bottling truck very interesting. It allows the smaller wineries to bottle without a huge investment.














OK enough history. The wine from the region, St. Emilion Gran Cru, is fabulous even to my unsophisticated palate. The town is a delight and the area beautiful. If you have room I strongly encourage you to add St. Emilion to your bucket list.

Village center on a rainy day

Hey it's France ... squid with black ink sauce...yum yum!

Rain or shine ... bring it on!