St Emillion, Perigord Valley

ST EMILLION
Each evening while in Bordeaux, I jaunted over to St. Emillion, about a half hour west of where I was staying. What a charming little village - on the top of a hill with ruins at the center, streets so narrow people have to duck into doorways to let the cars by. Tiny shops, "caves" offering wine tasting. I did venture into one, and was invited to self-tour through the caves where wine was being stored to age. Deep into the mountain - it was clear why this city was so famous for wine. Perfect storage!

The town was so charming, I returned all three nights I was in the Bordeaux area. Since if was off season, however, it was practically a ghost town with very little open. Nevertheless I enjoyed walking its streets, finding the view of the valley spots, and imagning the town thriving in midieval times. At the center was the ruin of what used to be a cathedral-type church - only the tower is left but the view from this place is amazing.

The wines from this tiny area rival that of Chateauneuf du Pape - especially the "Grand cru" of St Emillion. It's the top of the line, to be sure, and the envy of vintners! Whenever I see wines with the label "St Emillion - Grand Cru" I will think of thie village and enjoy the wine even more.

PERIGORD VALLEY - PREHISTORIC HUMANS
Wednesday I drove an hour and a half to the Perigord Valley, where a lot of evidence and artifacts of prehistoric human beings have been found. It is even thought that these are the first Europeans! ROOTS!

It's easy to see why this area would be a logical place to support life - rich river valley feeding life forms of many kinds - plant and animal with many, many caves which could provide shelter for humans. And indeed, thousands of artifacts such as spears, tools, fire pits and skeletal remains have been found and are on display at a museum in Les Eyzies. An amazing sight were all of these to see in this museum. I don't know why we think that just because this was so long ago, humans were not intelligent beings, or artistic. Not so.

Yet within the caves on the walls AND CEILINGS many paintings from this time following the ice age have been discovered. Two caves are open to the public: Ramasciou (sp?) and Lascau. Lascau is where the paintings of bulls, horses, deer, etc. were discovered in the 40's and were open to the public until it was discovered that this was destroying them (human emissions...). An exact replica was created for tours, called Lascau II - and I entered this and it was still awe inspiring.

I had thought these were doodlings of a bored cave dweller, but discovered otherwise. This was high art; artistic expression that was careful and highly refined craft. Historians think these might have been used for rituals in these cave spaces - but who knows? Here are examples of the first artistic works known. What were (are) they saying? What might the symbalism be? After all these thousands upon thousands of years, vibrant color, expressive muscle, thrust, amazing.

The beauty of the valley as I drove back, while very different from the miles and miles of vineyards was striking in many ways. As the road twisted and turned along the banks - these huge amazing sights would suddenly appear: cities built under rock, into rock; through rock. Huge Castles suddenly appeared along the banks - striking in their massiveness and elaborate towers - still standing in full glory as a hotel, or private residence. Can you imagine cleaning those places?!!

A very worthwhile venture.