Day 7 Saint Emilion FR

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Ooh la la!!! What a fantastic day in Saint Emilion. We started our day with a walking tour of the town with our guide, Pauline. This is a very old and very historic town with a lot of stories to be told on Emilion and his miracles. We toured a cave that he lived on as he wanted to live out his life in peace and alone. Below the bell tower we entered the cathedral that was dug by hand out of the stone and is completely below the surface and is the largest underground gothic cathedral in the world. It was in its glory painted with religious drawings but during the French Revolution it was vandalized. The revolutionists scratched the limestone to get to the sulphate from the walls and mixed it to make gunpowder. The four huge pillars in the center are currently being structurely reinforced with as over the centuries they have started to crumble as the weight of the bell tower has weakened them.



After the city tour we went tor a tasting of the wines of Bergerac. We elected to remain in town with our friends for lunch rather than return to the ship. Susan made reservations at one of the top restaurants in Bergerac in a relais and chateau hotel. The wine we shared was a Bergerac white made with Sauvignon and semillion grapes that was delicious and tasted much like a smooth buttery Chardonnay. The meal was nice (we split a salad with chicken and a French hamburger) but the view and ambiance was unforgettable. We were at the town high point and from the overlook could see vineyards for miles. It was truly breathtaking. After lunch we wandered about the town but again it has been so incredibly hot (88) that we were anxious to return to the air conditioned ship.



Tonight was the heritage club cocktail party on the top deck. All previous Uniworld guests are invited to attend. It was nice with the heads of all the ship departments attending greeting and thanking guests for sailing on Uniworld. Dinner was good and after dinner we all boarded open top tour busses for an evening tour of bordeaux returning around 11pm. Our day started early and ended late and we were very tired but happy!

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