Monday 31st May
St Emilion to Coutras
Our son-in-law Simon had told us we’d enjoy discovering St Emilion – how once up on the plateau there are plenty of little lanes to explore with famous vineyards and chateaux on every corner - and he was absolutely right. We had a wander around the town which boasts no charity shops, New Looks or supermarkets; it is far too genteel for any of that. Just cobbled streets, interior designers, dress shops, delis and vignerons – lots of the latter!

Looking back at St Emilion from the train.

First stop was the Tourist Office to find out where some of the Chateaux best known to us are. A very helpful girl queried whether we could possibly have had Moulin St George and told us we must have got that one wrong – chastened we slunk off.

Cloisters by the Collegiale

As the town is on the top of an escarpment ‘Le Train Des Grands Vignobles’ seemed like the easiest option to tour the town and the surrounding vineyards. It was effortless, good fun and very interesting and best of all, the train took us straight past Moulin St George which is immediately below the town hall and ramparts.

The Train!

We nearly returned to tell her it was where we had been told, but the office was closed, so we had a walk around La Collegiale church which is yet another ancient beauty. I wondered if my father had visited this all those years ago whilst he was studying wine in Bordeaux. We then treated ourselves to a small glass of St Emilion  (purely for research purposes) and a little light luncheon before heading north towards Guitres. We hadn’t booked anywhere to stay as we weren’t sure how long we would stay in town, and this is always a mistake. A few hours and a lot of hills later we still hadn’t seen a single chambre d’hote or hotel. However, we had really enjoyed meandering around the villages. It is a very pretty area and all so beautifully kept. However once the countryside flattened out and became less suitable for growing wine, it was much less attractive. Guitres lies 15 miles north of St Emilion on the river L’Isle. We were in luck there as they had a tourist office, it was open and they were wonderfully helpful. As is always the case on a Monday the town was mostly shut and in the end we had to head for Coutras a few miles away. They booked the b&b for us and told us to follow the old river road, instead of the main road. All very well until we found it was closed off by a large barrier back-filled with earth. Everything had to be unloaded and the bikes carried over, twice in 100 yards, before we re-joined the main road. It was worth it as there was a lot of traffic on the other one. Our b&b was a lovely old gentleman’s residence occupied by a charming widow and her incontinent cats.