St Emilion, continued...

 The old church in the middle of old town, St Emilion.

 The French UPS truck is hard at work, shipping cases of wine all over the world.

 A private wine house with invitation to come in to sample their wine and probably buy some.

It was really nice to have visited St Emilion. I've seen prettier wine villages in the Alsace area. But still this was worth it.

Lunch in St Emilion

 We thought (without asking how much it'll cost us) a little salad, some cold cuts and a selection of cheeses, much like a ploughman's lunch, why not? The salad was delicious.

So was the cold cuts..

We could have shared the cheese platter, all in all it was a lot of food. We tried to finish everything.

 We were dining al fresco and after eating I went inside to order coffee. The waiter told me he will bring out a little cookie for the both of us to share. All this time we still thought, a little of this, a little of that, why not.

 This was the 'the little cookie' that we shared. The cassis sorbet was so good. The canales were incredible.... it was an incredible lunch.

 Shared, we did, everything.

Then came the bill.... 80 euros. For lunch? Oui! We had mineral water, we didn't even have any of the St Emilion wines. It was worth it. Once in a while you've got to savor life at its finest. We've been living so cheaply all our lives, what are we saving for? For a few moments like this. The hard work at home paid off. We walked away, fully sated, both physiologically and spiritually.

Entering St Emilion

 We arrived in Bordeaux from Bayonne on the train, tried to get a room at a hotel across the street from the train station but they were full. We checked in at the second hotel, dropped our luggage off and took another train and within half hour was in St Emilion. The village was about a half hour walk uphill from the train station past private vineyards all of which were advertising free degustation (free samples of their wine).

It was way past lunch time and we wandered into the first restaurant we came to. The waiter said, they are offering a set lunch of salad, cold cuts and a selection of cheeses. So we thought, 'a simple lunch' it couldn't hurt and had lunch we did.

A lovely cottage garden in St Emilion

On the way into the village at St Emilion, we passed this cute cottage with the prettiest garden which in Ocotber (early) was still blooming and absolutely delightful. We could help but stop to take lots of pictures to capture the moment.

Harvesting the grapes

For the size of the harvest, these were not a lot of pickers. This is paltry compared to the size of the job. The foreman of the team waved to us to motion us to come and join them in the picking. None of us had the time. There were a lot of gipsies in caravans at the train station parking lot but they weren't hired. I don't know why. I guess one could find work in the vineyards all over France at this time of the year.

St Emilion, France

 We arrived by train in Bordeaux from Bayonne, dropped our luggage off at the hotel, leapt on another train and off we went to St Emilion. I've always wanted to see St Emilion and finally I'm here. It's a small village with lots of wine stores, restaurants and gift shops. The surrounding area are the numerous private vineyards. Everyone is invited in to sample the wine but we weren't drinkers, so we didn't.

The train station is no where near the village and we had to walk about a mile up the hill past vineyards to the village. There were a bunch of us, there were other visitors on the same train and all of us walked. I think we can call for a taxi which a few did. It was a very warm and sunny day and the vine was laden with grapes, all ready to be harvested. There wasn't much activity in the fields. We were in the Alsace wine region 2 years ago, there was much more activity there, with people picking and the trucks were hauling the grapes to the winery.

Dawdling in St Jean pied-de-port

Just enjoy the pictures. As with most French villages, St Jean is pretty, really pretty.

A church and a prayer

Light a candle for peace in the world. Here am I doing just that in the church in St Jean pied-de-port.