April 17, 2025

Last night we had a trivia competition in the lounge. Our group did not win but we had lots of fun. There were 42 questions!

We sailed to Libourne where we the boat will spend the next two days. We will explore Saint Emilion today and Libourne tomorrow.

An interesting phenomenon happens here called mascaret. It is a tidal bore in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river, reversing the direction of the river or bay’s current. It is a strong tide that pushes up the river against the current. We were told that twice today, morning and evening, we would need to be untied from the dock so that we are not caught in the current which would tear the ropes away from our boat and the dock. They say that in some areas the effect of the mascaret enables people to surf!

I was lucky enough this morning to get this sunrise picture with the beginning of the tide effects.

Today we spent our time in Saint Emilion. We were here in 2017 and I do have a blog post about it. It is only about a 20 minute trip from our boat.

We went around a lot of roundabouts (circles to many of us in the US). Our guide said that the French don’t like traffic so this eliminates the need for traffic lights but sure makes it harder for bus drivers to navigate – so do the narrow roads.

In Saint Emilion, there is an upper town and a lower town. We walked down to the major site here, the 12th century underground church. Photos are not permitted inside but you can read about and see pictures on this site:https://www.saint-emilion-tourisme.com/en/explorer/les-incontournables/les-12-monuments/l-eglise-monolithe-et-son-clocher

It is the largest medieval underground church in Europe and perhaps in the world. The town is full of restaurants, wine bars, wine shops and lots of interesting buildings. There are only 270 people living here and our guide, Virginie, lives here. They do get 1 million visitors each year and luckily we are early in the tourist season so it wasn’t very crowded.

Here are some of the other buildings and the church steeple.

After our walking tour and the exploration of the church we headed to a winery, Chateau Grand Mayne, for a tasting. The main wine produced here is merlot. There were vineyards as far as the eye could see on or way. Pesticides are not used on the vines here. They use “natural cruelty” which means that they use a female pheromone to distract the male insects away from the vines! They use these tractors which for everything from trimming to planting to harvesting. Not all vineyards use horses!

We enjoyed the wine tasting. Here are some photos of our guide there, the owner and the tasting room. The blurry picture is of the wine cellar with the oldest bottle from 2014. Sorry it didn’t come out clearer.

We went back to Saint Emilion and enjoyed a terrific lunch with new friends Warren and Terry from Denver. We had to have the appetizer of local white asparagus.

We will be in Libourne overnight and will explore the town tomorrow. One of the highlights will be the market.

Tonight on board we are doing the progressive dinner- will explain with photos tomorrow!