France

Valerie had to go to a fitting of her wedding dress this morning so we slept in then did a little washing then later, sitting here, writing my diary, a letter arrived from home - from Judy!  It made us smile and a photo taken across the bay from her deck made us think of home and the people there.

After another large, delicious lunch we drove, with Valerie, to Saint Emillion.  It is an ancient town with a fascinating history.

There is a small cathedral litterally carved out of the rock underground, built by the monks of the monastery that was established after people were drawn to the area after Saint Emillion performed his miracles in the 12th Century.  The tower and spire are built above the transept of the underground church though unfortunately it was not built directly above the pillars designed to support it - work is underway to reinforce the pillars with a hard synthetic resin.

Saint Emillion is also one of France's premium wine growing districts and we bought three bottles to take back with us.  We noticed the age of some of the bottles for sale and they were really no more expensive than the recent years.  We opened a 1987 to go with dinner that night and it was excellent and the perfect compliment to Marie France's wonderful feast.

Ancient buildings in the historic town of Saint Emillion

The ruins of the chapel in the Monastery - the walkway in the floor leads down to the cellar beneath the altar where the monks once stored their wine