St. Emilion, April 6

Wonderful day!

We started with a full French breakfast feast with croissants, baguettes, home made jam, yogurt and fruit.  Three French women had checked in after we went to bed and we had a pretty good conversation, especially as only one of them spoke any English. Mark used the iPad quite a bit and it was really nice and a reason to stay in these little B &Bs.

The day started out rather sunny...hurray!  I did my first driving in our peppy little car.  We drove to St Emilion which we visited on our first trip to Europe in 1982 when we stumbled upon it,not realizing its prominence in the world of wine.  In fact, it really started our initial interest in wine.  We parked in the lower town and walked up to the top, visiting cloisters dating from the 12th century.  The streets are as narrow and beautiful as we remembered.

We had 2 'o'clock reservations for lunch at a restaurant reviewed in "The Wine Spectator" which was a few kilometers away in St Genes de Castillon, a separate appellation from St Emilion.  The restaurant was Le Cave a Vins, although it was called Le Comptoir de Genes in the magazine.  We had the compris menus.  Mark started with cold sausages and cellariac, followed by roast pork with a mustard sauce and riced potato in a sauce and followed by rice pudding.  He pronounced all was delicious.  I started with salmon cakes and mesclun a la pesto,followed by delicious mussels and then a baked apple with home made vanilla ice cream.  Ooooohhhh. La la!  We had some local Castillon wine and bought a few bottles to drink with friends along the way.  We met the owner Anne Marie Galineau and showed her the article which she showed to others in the old converted barn.  She was pleased.  It was a special meal, for sure.
When we came out, the day had become foggy.  We drove around the chateau, stopping to take photos at Chateau Pressac.  Gorgeous.  Then, we drove back to St Emilion to walk some more and work off some of the food.  We also bought and shared a macaroon, for which the area is also known.

Then, we drove yet another route of back roads back to our B &B.  A really nice day...and our grandson, Cole, turned 14 today, too!