We visited Saint-Emillion on a day trip from Bordeaux. Trains leave only about 5 times a day, and we found that the 10.40 departure suited us best. The train takes just over half an hour. From the tiny railway station in Saint-Emillion a walk of about 20 minutes is required to get to the city center. This walk actually provided us with our first photo opportunities of the famous vineyards, so it was no hassle at all.

The town of Saint-Emilion likes its tourist Euro, so almost every building in the old city center is converted into a shop, a wine bar, or a restaurant. Most visitors seem to come there on bus tours or by their own car. The medieval streets are bustling with people, and as we were blessed by extremely sunny and warm weather for this time of year the terraces were crowded. We enjoyed a great meal of mussels and french fries there – such pleasures is what a mini-break is all about.

The two major monuments of Saint-Emilion are its churches: the weird Monolithic Church and the exuberant Collegiate Church. The latter has lots of colourful stained glass windows, through which the sunlight shines to illuminate the interior.

We visited the surrounding vineyard landscape by the little tourist train that loops through it. The fields were pretty dry already, so I was not as impressed by the scenery as I was 8 weeks ago when I visited the Lavaux vineyard terraces in Switzerland. There are just lots of vineyards here, as far as you can see, a real monoculture.