The city of St Emilion is really a wonderful stop. It has to be one of the best in the region--very historic and well preserved. Our guide pointed out this site as a way spend the few extra minutes we had for "being on our own." She may get a finders fee for directing visitors.... Anyway, this is a decent stop for some gift items to take home. The site is well designed, attractive and a good re-purposing of a historic building. There is a nice bar for a drink on the second floor.

The place is an amazing blend of old and new. It's an old quarry with the ruins of a monastery above it. The monastery church is now the modern shop and tasting room with the wine cellars in the tunnels beneath. The cloisters outside are surrounded by a modern bar and an events area. The tour however was a farce. The tour guide just gathered everyone waiting at the shop without checking for tickets. We then realised that it was all in French so we spent the first part running back and forth to the busy shop trying to get the text with the tour in English. Because of this the tour guide chose to completely ignore us, all we got out of him was the wine tasting, he even forgot to give us the macaron he gave everyone else, we had to ask for it. Apart from not being able to understand much, reading a text while moving around and trying to observe your surroundings is not that easy, the tour in itself is not that great. All you get to see is a small area of the underground tunnels without anything of interest in it.. The best part was the tasting, but again we had to just sit there and listen to the guide making small talk with everyone else in French. Tour aside we enjoyed the place as much as possible, we had drinks at the bar, we bought wine, macarons and souvenirs at the shop. As a matter of fact everyone at the shop was very helpful and answered all the questions we had about everything including what we missed from the tour. .They even gave us padding for the wine bottle we bought to be able to travel with it without fear of breaking it.

This old Franciscan monastery is the perfect shaded spot to enjoy an aperitivo after walking to town from the train station. They have been producing their own sparkling wine, the Cremant in 17m deep aging cellars since centuries and they have certainly improved them to perfection in that time. And they also match beautifully with the original macarons that also origin from St Emilion, a simple but super tasty treat, a far cry from the overhyped, overdecorated Parisian version. The cafe/restaurant is self-service and joins a shop where all the above can also be purchased for home.