St. Emilion

Everybody in the EAP Bordeaux Spring program plus a few students from the year program went on an excursion to St. Emilion today. We first began our trip at the medieval town of St. Emilion. Everything about this small town is very historic. For example, we learned that St. Emilion was a baker(?) who came from the Breton region of France and that limestone extraction was a driving force in St. Emilion's economy. Because there was a limestone quarry, the people of St. Emilion were able to build a subterranean church which also happens to be the largest underground church of all Europe. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any photos in the catacombs and caves, but it was very interesting to see where they used to burry people and go to church.

Anyway, after the tour of town, we hopped back on the bus and went to a cooperative wine processing plant. (St. Emilion is also very well known for the wine it produces.) In this modern winery, there were huge wine processing machines and barrels and barrels of wine. It was amazing to see how much wine they could make. They even showed us the different sized wine bottles they put the wine in. I believe the largest size was called magnum. And after the tour, we had a wine "dégustation" tasting.

--In the photo, to the right of the pretty cool looking building, you can see a window. Through that window, you can find the underground church.--