27 Aug BORDEAUX TO ST EMILION

Left Bordeaux around 10am and caught a train out to Libourne about 20 mins eastish of Bordeaux where we were to meet the rest of our tour group in the afternoon. Had some time to kill so enjoyed a tour of this small town and a coffee in the square. 

Our tour "group" for this week had ended up consisting of us plus one other Aussie from Melbourne! plus the tour coordinator, a youngish American lad from Iowa!  So pretty much a custom built tour for us we're thinking!!! I think the other Aussie is appreciating our map reading skills and photographic prowess so has hung with us for most of the time, but I don't think we go quite fast enough!!! Our photograph to km ratio is pretty high!!!

Still unable to upload photos, this library computer is not recognising the usb :(

After meeting the guys at Libourne station we put our own bike seats on the bikes, made the necessary adjustments and then set off for our St. Emilion which was our stop for 2 nights. 

This is a beautiful medieval village perched on a hillside surrounded by vineyards.  This village is actually named after a monk who settled here in the 8th century and gathered a following.  The village is built over a network of limestone caves which were man-made.  The centre piece of the village is the tall church spire which stands over a monolithic church(an underground church carved out of a single stone - simply amazing!). The view from the top is awesome! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Emilion for further information if you so desire!

After a brief explore of the town we met back up with the guys for a pre dinner drink in the garden of some old monastry ruins.  Dinner that night lived up to the high standard we are now used to, and in keeping with the theme of the town we ate in one of the underground restaurants.  Plenty of duck and foie-gras on the menu.

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RODGER!!!