18 June 2017

ST EMILION, THE VIEWS.

St Emilion sits high on a hill, overlooking beautiful countryside and vineyards.  There are magnificent views to be found looking out from within its walls and also into its own streets.  This is just a selection of my favourite photos.

St Emilion views2

Some of the streets are very narrow and steep.  Most are cobbled.

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There are vineyards all around, as far as you can see.

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There is also quite a lot of green space within the town’s walls.

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Some of this green space is occupied by unexpected inhabitants, who have one of the most lovely views over the vineyards.

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I wonder how much they appreciate it.

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There is a train which can take you from St Emilion to Bordeaux in only twenty minutes.  Parking at the station is free.  We intended to do this on our last day but when the weather forecast was for 35°C or even possibly hotter, we decided against it and thought we could save that trip for the future.

St Emilion views9a

Some of the street views were even more lovely at dusk.

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At the weekend these streets were heaving with people until dark.  In the middle of the week we had them almost to ourselves.

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With the fancy wine tasting shops closed for the night, the only tourists that lingered enjoyed the peace and quiet of the evening at one of the three bars in the town.  We ate here once.  It was ok, nothing to get excited about and much more expensive than the same meal would have cost in Touraine, probably 50% more.  The price of tourism I suppose.

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The rooftop views were enthralling at dusk.  Lights came on here and there, leaving me to wonder who lived inside the old buildings.

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It’s one of those towns where I would simply love to be able to step back in time and see how life was say a hundred years ago.  All over town there are reminders of the old ways, how things were done when it was really a working town, not just a tourist town.  I expect that in reality it would probably be pretty grim, the narrow streets dirty and dangerous.  Life was probably very hard for ordinary folk and pretty uncomfortable even for the better off.  Life expectancy would have been quite short.  Even so, just a glimpse would be nice.

St Emilion views9g

I’d love to know just some of the secrets that these old walls could tell.

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There was a beautiful tranquillity about the streets at nightfall.  No doubt it would have been a completely different scene a hundred years or more ago.

3 comments:

  1. We only had a half day in St Emilion but it was very hot when we were there and those steep streets were very tiring. Never the leaa I wish we could have stayed longer as it is a beautiful town and we most have missed so much. Stepping back in time would have been more than just interesting. I love historic France. Hope all is well Diane

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  2. Glad to see you are back. I would love to visit St Emilion one day.

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  3. Nice photos. Very evocative. Now I want to go back to Saint-Emilion too.

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