Walking tour through Bordeaux vineyards from Saint-émilion to Sauternes

You will begin your week with a hiking day in the jurisdiction of St- Emilion. All around the city extends the vines: Châteaux and wine properties,  like Petrus or château La Clotte or Beau Séjour, draw up themselves there, well planted in the grounds, proud of their history and the men who set them up.
Walk through the characteristic landscape of the coomb as well as specificities of the vineyards. Exceptional site formed by a succession of coomb covered with vines.

This landscape was the first “no architectural” site, classified by the UNESCO world heritage.

Then back to your hotel for the night.

Night and breakfast in hotel 3 or 4* or charming guesthouse.

This Step is optional and not available in the 7 days 6 nights tour

The morning:
Private guided visit of one of the oldest Winerie of Saint-Emilion. This winery is one of the jewels of St. Emilion: The Couvent des Jacobins followed by a wine tasting … The visit lasts around 1h

The afternoon:
You will have a guided tour of the underground monuments of the city. Built in amphitheatre and true museum in the open air, the town of
Saint-Emilion will astonish you. Its troglodyte tradition is seizing: a single church monolith in the world, more than 70 hectares of underground galleries dug in the calcareous rock.
The monuments and vestiges of the great Roman time follow one another along the steep’s lanes, defying the rules of time the most established. The visit lasts around 1h.

At the end of the afternoon, taxi transfer to Camiran, in the “Entre- Deux-Mers” vineyard.

Dinner, night and breakfast at the guesthouse with a swimming pool. The hosts will cook a regional cuisine with some wines of the area.

The Entre-Deux-Mers area, between the Dordogne and the Garonne rivers, is a triangle of ground, water and stones which surprises by its cultural variety.

You will cross a part of this vineyard which profits from an exceptional geographical site on the slopes dominating the valley of the Garonne. Here , ths is the first area for white wines production in Bordeaux wines

At the end of the afternoon, you will arrive in the heart of the cute village in the edge of the Garonne. We will drive you back to your guesthouse

Dinner at your guesthouse.

You will walk in a landscape of greenery, along the vines and estuary of the Gironde. Castles, fishermen huts of the area offer astonishing sights. You will be able to make a halt in the small port and its locks marking the departure of famous “Canal du Midi”, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

The footpath lead you directly to one of the door of the medieval city of St Macaire, site protected by the historic buildings since 1965.

You will have time to visit this village on your own.

Night and breakfast in guesthouse in Saint-Macaire (or in hotel 3* in Langon depending on availability)

Above Saint-Macaire, the hills open splendid scenic views. One guesses there the dark spots of the tobacco drying sheds. In this landscape of hills and small valleys, the vines succeed the meadows and the thickets of leafy trees. One discovers many mills and castles there, opening very broad sights on changing reliefs.

This circuit will carry out you to the “Domaine de Malagar”, residence of the writer François Mauriac, whom you will be able to visit and to the tomb of the famous painter Toulouse Lautrec.

You will be able to visit the Château Laurette (Sweet white wine producer) or the Château Loubens before reaching the village of Sainte-Croix du Mont, perched on a slope, offering a spectacular view on the Garonne Valley and remarkable for its wines and caves, whose walls are covered with
fossilized oyster benches and where cellars and even a vault were arranged. Do not forget the church as well.

At the end of the afternoon, a taxi will transfer you to Sauternes or Barsac.

Dinner, night and breakfast in hotel.
NOTICE: in case of non availability, you will spend 2 nights in a guesthouse in Barsac/Illats.

Notice: If your accommodation is in Barsac or Illats, short transfer the morning to the daily walking departure, in Sauternes.

Located on left bank of the Garonne, in fact the high-class wines of Sauternes are offered to the discovery. Throughout your course, you will walk  along well-known wine producer like Château La Tour Blanche and château Rayne Vigneau and will be able to appreciate the small local inheritance (churches, mills, laundrettes…) but also a varied natural inheritance: landscapes of vine, forest and the Ciron River, wild small rivers formerly used for the transport of wood.
You will walk in an exceptional vineyard by its single soil which results from knowledge, two centuries old, who gave quality and prestige to the wines of Sauternes and Barsac.

Dinner, night and breakfast in guesthouse.

Breakfast and transfer to the Barsac or Langon train station.