St Emilion, Grave and Sauternes

Friday, April 28, 2017
Floirac, Aquitaine, France
After a very nice breakfast talking with Raphael and Mercedes from Seville and a couple from north of Amsterdam, we drove to St Emilion which is a cute walled, medieval town east of Bordeaux.....cute but touristy with wine vendors and Touristy trinket shops galore....but it was sunny and although busy nothing as crazy as Cacassone so it was a pleasant morning. There was a pretty 8 century Romanesque churcho hat was supposedly started by St. Emilion .... It had a gothic addition done in the 12 C.....simple but the attached cloister was nice. The main square was pretty with tables under trees but the church that was carved into he limestone cliff was closed for lunch and the tables were full....it's a problem when you have a great breakfast but then 3 hours later you either have to eat again like the French or wait until 1900.
So since we were not very hungry we bought a baguette sandwich for W and drove across country through the back roads via St Hippolyte, Cadillac, and Brede to the coast....we finally found Dune de Pilat and climbed to the top...less than spectacular as it's just a huge sand dune with hundreds of French families climbing and whining.....then on to Arcachon which is a seaside town that was pretty with Vi tori an mansions...now the beach is lined with multi storied condos and tacky boardwalk restaurants.. We stopped at a pizza place with an outside terrace for a beer and should have stayed for a pizza. Instead we walked to an inner courtyard terrace restaurant that had a lounge type singer....we were going to eat but couldn't get the waiter interested enough to order. So after a beer and red wine for me we drove back to Bordeaux and Natalie recommended a local English pub next to the Mega Cinema in Place Stalingrad.. The burgers and beer were good but the waiter stank...no smile, perfunctory at best, almost fudge at worse. Oh well we always have to have one off day per trip!!
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