St. Emilion and Wine

The first day with Pascal and Isabelle was spent on the theme of wine. We started by going to the medieval town of St. Emilion. We walked around to get a feel for the town and then decided to get a nice lunch of pumpkin soup and veggies paired with a nice red wine from the area. Pascal, where was the wine from? Im terrible with remembering names!
After lunch we decided to go on the underground tour because in fact, under the city there are huge natural and man made galleries and caverns. Pictures were not permitted during the tour but anyhow it would have been too dark to get good ones. The first thing we saw was the place where St. Emilion lived, a little natural cavern close to the church in the picture below.

St Emilion worked for Earl of Vannes in Brittany in the mid 700's and the story goes that he used to steal bread from the Earl's kitchen and hide it in his coat to give to the poor. One day he was caught by the Earl. St. Emilion lied and said he was carrying wood in his coat, not bread, and when he opened his coat to prove it, there was indeed wood and not bread. Obviously he became very popular in town for this miracle, but he wasn't one for fame so he left the area and headed for southern France.

He reached St. Emilion (then called Ascumbas) and took refuge in a natural cave and lived there as a hermit. He founded the town of St. Emilion with some disciples and became the head hauncho pretty much and there you have it.


The monolithic church in St. Emilion. Monolithic - if you didnt know, comes from the Greek words mono and lithos - meaning one stone. This church was carved out of the limestone rock by Benedictine monks in the 11th century. The bell tower you see here was added later between the 12th and 15th century. The actual church is undergound.


This is the view from above. We were standing at the base of the church tower that's in the picture above.


This was actually inside another church that was a blend of Roman and Gothic architecture inside.


This one too.

After the tour of the St. Emilions cave, the catacombs (there were still a few bones!) and the giant underground church, we decided to get some of St. Emilions famous macarons and drink a bottle of bubbly wine (not Champagne...didn't come from that region, but tasted the same to me). The macarons looked exactly like this. You peeled them off the paper, kinda like dot candy, and then they basically melt in your mouth. Too good.


This tree was full of wine corks and apparently the tradition is to throw the cork up into the tree and I think its if stays up there you have good luck or something. I cheated.

Next we went to a vineyard. Pascal has been visiting this vineyard for ages, so we were warmly welcomed to their castle/house and they cheerily swapped news and played catch up. The vineyard is run by a father daughter team and it was the daughter who walked me around and explained the process of wine making and all the stuff that goes into it. Don't ask me to reproduce this talk - it was fairly complicated and Im not sure I 100% got it but it was cool to see. Then we tasted the wine.


This is their main wine label. The castle/house in the picture is where we went to do the wine tasting and see the wine cave.


This is their other wine that they they produce on a property close by. I preferred this one when we did the tasting.


Little growing wine trees.

Next we went to a modern vineyard - all steel and glass and did a wine tasting of 5 wines from Morocco. Isabelle and Pascal discovered cardamom. It was put out in shallow bowls for you to dip the cheese in and it was really good that way. Im used to the spice in Indian dishes and Chia and stuff like that but I had never had it with cheese and it was quite good!

I collapsed into bed that night. Stay tuned for day 2.

Weekend in Beajolais Country

Beaujolais is a light bodied red wine produced in the Beaujolais province. The region is located north of Lyon and is composed of miles and miles (kilometers if you prefer) of rolling hills literally covered in grape vines and tiny little town placed here and there among them.
The first people to sew the seeds of the now famous Beaujolais grapes were the Romans. From the 7th century through the Middle Ages, most of the viticulture and winemaking was done by the Benedictine monks. In the 10th century, the region got its name from the town of Beaujeu (which we drove through I think...or we just saw a lot of signs for it, it's the capital of that region), and Rhône (very close by) and was ruled by the Lords of Beaujeu till the 15th century.
The Beaujolais Nouveau - as Alex so aptly described it - is a simple table wine. There is no body - no real lasting flavor at the back of your tongue. It's just there. And frankly...it's just gross. But its the only wine that can be released as young as it is - so for whatever reason they DO release it young, even though in my opinion its not ready to be tasted. There you have it though - a yearly tradition complete with wine tasting, marathons, and fireworks.

We got up around 5 am and I and walked up to Place Jordan where Alex and her room-mate Amandine (she's French and she loves "le catch" (WWF wrestling)) picked Therese and I up. Amandine drove us all the way to Lyon (a 5 or so hour drive) and dropped us off at Part Dieu (the train station in the heart of Lyon). From there we rented a car - thank goodness Alex drives stick! - and proceeded to drive up to the Beaujolais region with me as the navigator.


Therese is on the left and Alex is on the right.


We drove up to Villefranche - drove by it the first time thinking nothing was going on but a marathon - but then headed back after our pizza chef in Belleville told us that's where the action was.


There were about 5 different bands playing (think marching band) which I took videos of- but I thought this little girl was so cute!


Really cute little town - filled to the brim for nasty wine :)



We walked around for a bit sipping on our little plastic cups of wine while Alex explained to Therese and I how she describes the taste of wine and how there are so many different personal ways to do it. I like wine - but I never really got into talking about it - so I had little to add to her wealth of information.

Stumbled upon this guy - and everyone was taking pictures with him. Therese and I posed while Alex took our picture but the joke of it all went right over my head. Remi! Who is this guy and why should I think it's funny?



Really pretty church in the center of town. There were signs for a "pasta party" all over the place and when we got to the church there was a stage set up next to it with semi-drunks singing karaoke and the "pasta party" sign was pointed right at the stage. I was ever so disappointed and confused.



Several cheese stands with little chunks for tasting.



These ones you actually buy this way though.



This cheese was covered in grapes from the wine making process.



These guys were dressed as grapes - which I totally didn't get until Alex told me. I was like..what kinda weird monsters are they trying to be - although - there were a lot of people wearing wigs for no reason so I didn't think it was too strange. Grapes make sense though.

We stayed at this really cute place that was pretty much impossible to find. The "town" was called La Grange du Bois..and so was the bed and breakfast. We were told we would "fall upon it" - more on this expression in another post! dont get me started on "fall upon it" - because literally there was nothing in this town but some houses and the B&B.


view from the window

Turned out to be an amazing huge old house with an incredible view. Our hostess walked around in a floor-length poncho looking friendly and was more than willing to point us in the direction of food when we finally found the place, hungry and tired.



Breakfast in the morning was hearty bread with 3 seemingly homemade jams and butter(which Im told is much better here than at home - i dont eat butter much so I wasn't sure), grape juice, and tea.



Turned out to be a great weekend. We got lost. Therese and I got carsick. We're already making plans to go back to Lyon. There is so much more I could say about this weekend but attention spans are only so long right? Enjoy the pictures!