Saint-Emilion evening

 

Since Mary has to work and won’t join the tour tomorrow, we ventured from our hotel in Montagne to Saint-Emilion for dinner. It is 3.5 miles away so we took an Uber that charged 15 euros. Sara had warned not to stay too late as the cabbies go to bed and we might have to walk back. So we tried to engage our driver Michel for our return trip but he said just use the Uber App. 

We drove past beautiful scenery and into the picturesque town. We saw the large “monolith cathedral” that is carved from one block of stone and loads of small white limestone buildings on the curved narrow streets. He dropped us at the top of a narrow alley and pointed down to our destination - Amelia Canta. It was very steep rough walking. Sue had the right shoes but Julie was struggling a bit. 

We reached the bottom and there were several restaurants in the square next to the bottom of the Church. We read about the town and Church on a nearby sign. Emilion was a Breton (Celt from Brittany) who came to the area, founded a cult and they carved the church into the stone. Later religious orders continued the work and built the chapel above. 

We wandered a short while and then stopped for a beer at the terrace next to our restaurant. Nick noticed Warsteiner Beer on the menu and remembered that it was Marlene Kloiber’s favorite beer. She always served it at their wonderful parties. Once when Marlene’s sister JoAnn and husband Dave hosted a party, Marlene prodded Nick to ask for a Warsteiner to tease them. 

Mary walked around while the rest of us relaxed. We then walked next door to the Amelia Canta which was one of Maria’s recommended restaurants. We had Gazpacho, Camembert fondue, crepes (galettes), omelette, shrimp pasta and a Tuscan salad that was a huge bowl of fresh tomatoes with a ball of buratta. Sue and Julie loved the gazpacho but found the crepes and omelette uninspiring. There were tons of tomatoes left but we had no refrigerators in our rooms, so after some discussion, we did not take the leftovers. We asked the cute young waiter where to wait for an Uber since the first driver had left us a fair distance up the hill. He suggested we call his favorite taxi driver who would pick us up right there. Although somewhat skeptical Mary called and spoke in French to the driver. He said 20 minutes. We waited 25 with Mary getting more and more nervous that it was some sort of con, when suddenly he appeared. It was a large van and he maneuvered deftly through the tiny streets. At one point he saw some people waiting and stopped and told them it would take 15 minutes for him to return to take them to Montagne. He drove like a speed demon down the dark streets and we got to our hotel very quickly. He said the fare was 40 euros! Mary argued until he reduced the fare to 30. We tried to tell him the Uber was half that but he wouldn’t buy it. We were disgusted but glad to be home. We shared a bottle of local wine and Nick had a beer on our patio. A large cat wandered by and we saw some lightening in the distance. We had a nice visit and said goodnight when it started raining.