Marea seems to have a thing about sunrises at the moment - she was up,
and heading up the sand-dune at about 7:15 this morning, even though
from our experience in Spain it would still take another half an
hour!! Still, as cold as it was sitting up there - when the brilliant
red sun made its appearance, it was worth it! Though we couldn't
convince Dave to get out of bed!
Today's plan was to head around Bordeaux and into the heart of wine
country. It was quite neat just driving the country roads, surrounded
by rows and rows of vines that had nice big juicy bunches of grapes
currently sitting on them as the picking season is just about to
start. Kerryn and Daniel compared the bunches of grapes to udders on
an aging cow - heathens!
Our destination was the charming medieval village of St. Emilion -
situated on a hill, giving a great view of the vineyards all around.
First stop was a walk through an underground cellar where thousands
upon thousands of bottles of wine lay in the cool atmosphere. The
oldest batch we could find were a few bottles from 1965. It was
definitely very trusting of them to just let us roam about down there.
We were told that at 4pm something was going to happen from the top of
the Castel daou Rey (King's tower). We found the perfect viewpoint -
from an outdoor restaurant with great views looking across to the
tower. Marea and Dave took charge of the drinks menu, and pretty soon
we had a couple of reds and whites ordered. We were feeling very
French with our fine view, setting and lovely afternoon sun. However
upon being served, it became apparent that 'Pineau des Charrentes -
Chateau de Beaulon blanc/rouge 5 ans' does not mean a 5 year old glass
of white/red wine, but instead a highly fortified desert wine!! All
the same - they were some beautifully sweet, strong drinks - and the
waiter did tell us that an afternoon desert wine is perfectly
acceptable to enjoy the sunshine. Then again, he could have told us
anything and we would have believed him!!
By the time we had finished our drinks, nothing yet had happened up on
tower, so we took a free tour into an underground area carved out of
the limestone rock between the 9th & 12th centuries. Down there was a
Monolithic Church, Catacombs, Trinity chapel and Hermits Cave.
Unfortunately the tour was all in French, so halfway through we snuck
ahead to the tour half an hour in front of us, and got outside just in
time to see the celebrations on top of the King's Tower.
Again, all in French - but from what we could gather, the 30 or 40 men
in red robes waving out to the town from the tower were the Master
Sommelliers (wine experts). The ceremony finished with whole town
yelling out 'alleluia' repeatedly, and then 10 bunches of helium
balloons that looked like bunches of grapes were let off into the sky.
I think what we witnessed was the greeting of the new harvest, with
the picking season starting this week.
Our camping spot, courtesy of our book of free spots, was in among the
vines of a local vineyard. Our thank you to our local's hospitality
was the purchase of a couple of their product to enjoy for a very
pleasant evening with bread and cheese in the last of the setting sun
- beautiful!!
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