Cognac and arrival in St. Emilion

On Thursday, we departed Amboise (after stopping by another famous chocolatier) and hit the road to head to St. Emilion, a medieval village centered around the ruins of a castle with over 200km of catacombs below the city. On the way, we stopped in Cognac, home of the same-named liquor, made from distilling wine. We got a tour of the Hennessy Cognac distillery and learned all about the history of Cognac and how Richard Hennessy, an Irishman, got into the business over 150 years ago. Hennessy was an entrepreneur and was largely responsible for the exporting of Cognac to Britain and other parts of the world. The tour finished with a tasting of Cognac and we got to sample 2 different kinds—a younger blend, often used for mixed drinks, and an older blend more suitable for sipping after dinner. After taking the tour, we took a walk around the town before getting back on the road to St. Emilion. We arrived at our hotel –Au Logis des Remparts, and squeezed our large vehicle into the narrow entrance to the parking lot. We were very thankful that we hired a chauffeur for our wine-tasting on Friday and would not have to worry about parking again! We enjoyed a nice meal at a restaurant outside the church abbey, although our waitress didn’t seem too pleased to be working (this was our first encounter with a grumpy French person, and it had nothing to do with us being American).