CRuising the dordogne to Bordeaux

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St. Emilion and Libourne September26 & 27



As I write this we are sailing down the Dordogne River from Libourne. It is beautiful and quiet sailing along this muddy channel but I am getting ahead of myself. Yesterday afternoon we reached Libourne. We immediately set out for St emilion which was about minutes up the road.



St. Emilion is a very old town predominantly of wine makers and barrel makers..the streets are all cobblestone with no cars or trucks it was originally a walled city but those are long gone. All of the cobblestones came from England as ballast on ships. The ships returned with their holds file with barrels of wine. This area originally belonged to England. There were several beautiful monasteries and churches here but they were all destroyed in either the hundred years war or the French Revolution.

All of the wine raised here is red wine. This is where claret first appeared. All the barrels of wine were taken down to Libourne to be shipped abroad mainly to England.



Today we are going on a walking tour of Libourne. The ship has been docked all day right across the Dordogne from Libourne which is at the confluence of the Dordogne and the Lisle. Every afternoon a series of waves come up the river called the “mascaret” also called the “bore wave” in English. When the tide starts rising it is so strong that a wave forms for several minutes. It is really spectacular.





Libourne is a very pretty town of about 28thousand people. It also was fortified with double thick walls. These are all gone now and only one tower remains which is like the symbol of Libourne.

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