Saint-Emilion : A Jewel of a Town

When a place is especially beautiful, the French call it a bijou or a precious jewel.  In that sense, Saint-Emilion is definitely a bijou in the heartland of Bordeaux with it’s narrow roads, underground monolithic church and historic vineyard landscape which have survived intact from 11^th cc. Saint-Emilion and all the surrounding area is a Unesco World Heritage site, which is a reason of pride for the French and a present to future wine lovers. So, thank you Unesco.

The old medieval city owns it name to a very pious young man called Emilion who came to the region in the 8^th cc . He found it so peaceful he decided to live there as a hermit. So he carved a cave of around 15 square metres out of limestone, dedicated his life to prayer and started performing many miracles. His reputation helped to make the town a pilgrimage site and five Christian orders followed suit. Among them the Benedictines proved to be very industrious, they not only designed and built the town of Saint-Emilion they also managed to carve themselves the largest monolithic underground cathedral of Europe in just 40 years.  What I especially liked was how they used the Zodiac calendar in their planning and architecture; letting the stars guide them in the outlining of their town. 

The magnificent underground cathedral was once covered with carvings and paintings, some of which were inspired from the paintings at the cave churches of Cappadocia.  After the French revolution when all religious assets were nationalised, its walls were scraped to obtain saltpeter to be used in guns, only leaving a fraction of its original glory. Now the Romanesque church and it’s catacombs rests just over the underground cathedral and the hermit’s cave , adding another dimension to this medieval town.

Today the little town hosts two striking cathedrals, nice bars and restaurants, numerous wine boutiques who are selling any imaginable produce & vintage & gadgets (I bought two bottles of salt seasoned with Merlot & Cabarnet; I don't know what I'll do with them but they smell great!) and Madame Blanchez’s small patisserie that is specialised in heavenly Canneles and macarons. Canneles and macarons are a serious business in this part of the world for centuries.  For centuries Bordeaux wine makers use egg whites to cleanse the wine from remaining sediments.  Just before bottling they scrape 4-6 egg whites to a barrel and wait until the egg whites along with remaining sediment rest at the bottom. They then get the clear wine and sell the unused egg yolks to neighbouring patisseries who make a special desert called ‘ Canneles’  (taste similar to Izmir’s lokma in a wine syrup) .  And Mme B's recipe for macarons is one of Saint-Emillion's best protected secrets. 

It’s impossible to talk about Saint-Emilion without mentioning its beautiful vineyards and wonderful wine, which Louis XIV called ‘ the nectar of Gods’. So, not surprisingly Saint-Emilion wines have their own classification and own patron saint ! Whereas all other wine growing regions are protected by St. Vincent in France , Saint-Emilion producers chose St. Valerie , a saint that doesn’t appear anywhere else, to be their patron saint. It seems to work just fine ; the little town is buzzing with tourists and wine enthusiasts , all shops are doing good business and this years’ harvest was bountiful.