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European Adventure 2017
After a cracking good thunderstorm during the night which at times was directly above us we woke to another glorious day with a temperature of 19 degrees by 7am. The Village of St Emilion was only half an hour away so we planned on spending most of the day there. What an amazing place. It was founded in the 8th century by a Monk called St Emilion although the full details of his life are not completely known. The entire village and immediate surrounds are built on 200km of underground tunnels where the limestone below has been cut away for use in all the buildings above ground. The central church is a monolithe church in that it is actually sculptured out of the stone rather than build from blocks and is largely underground. You have no idea looking at the outside which is rather derelict what is underneath and several floors below. Simply amazing especially as it was created so long ago. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs of the church during that tour. The blocks are no longer carved from underground but the tunnels that remain are now used as cellars for the many outstanding vineyards and Chateaux that are in this area. Geoff went back to the camp to do some work while the rest of us did a tour on a little train which took us all around the area and then stopped at one vineyard for a tasting. We were able to walk through the subterranean cellar and feel the cool clean air which is constantly at 13 degrees all year around despite it being 32 outside today. Perfect conditions for cellaring wine. Later in the afternoon we joined Geoff at the St Emilion Yehlo campsite which was a commercial one this time as we have to do washing etc ready for the boat tomorrow. Such a nice camp with plenty of trees, a lake with watersport activities, a swimming pool and nicely separated sites with hedges between. We spent some time cooling off in the pool before happy hour and then tea. Tomorrow we hire a boat for a week so looking forward to that!
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