Images from sleepy, beautiful St. Emilion

After the jumping event (Feb. 5-9) I went to St. Emilion, a little vineyard town about 30 minutes from central Bordeaux. It was just beautiful, although rainy and mostly closed due to the fact that it's not tourist season.

Would love to go back. The wines are to die for. And everyone I met was genuinely helpful. The tourist office set me up with a free, personal tour of the town...and even drove me around in their own cars...I'm a "journalist," you know. The guest house where I stayed went out of their way to pick me up and drop me off at the train stations. Not part of their job...very nice.

The town of St. Emilion was recently named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is made entirely of limestone quarried from underneath the village. Catacombs span the entire town...there is even an underground church. The other use for underground caves is....you guessed it...wine cellars. Perfect damp conditions whose temperatures don't vary much throughout the year. The town was named after a monk named Emilion who lived underground here for years and performed miracles. He was most famous for making young women fertile. They asked me if I wanted to sit on the fertility rock to which I gracefully declined.