Friday 21st February 2025 – Lussac-Saint-Emilion, France

We reviewed our planned stops on the route to Spain and decided to stop in two Camping Car Parks (CCP). These are aires, often municipal aires, that have been upgraded to have good fresh water and dumping facilities and also have wifi. The sites have barriers installed, which makes them more secure but there is also a charge, generally about £12 - £14 per 24 hours. Unlike most campsites, there are no restrictions on arrival or departure times, which can be very useful.
Today we headed to Lussac-Saint-Emilion in the heart of the famous St. Emilion wine area. But first, a map at the aire had showed us that there were some museums in the area and the Museum of Prehistory at Grand Pressigny sounded interesting. We weren’t expecting much but it turned out to be fascinating. We should have known about Grand Pressigny as it is famous for very high quality flint tools that were exported over a large part of France but also reached Holland and Switzerland during the final Neolithic period (3^rd millennium BC). Production of the flint was on an industrial scale, exploiting the flint by mining caves in the valley sides. Large stores of unfinished flint tools have been excavated together with vast quantities of waste from the flint knapping process. The museum was very well presented and there was an excellent video showing an expert flint knapper producing the distinctive long flint blades from the local flint.
The journey was through pleasant countryside with many rivers and lakes and, just as we approached Lussac, vineyards.
Arriving at the aire, we used our card to open the barrier and just got an error. We had to phone the CCP office to get a code to enter and then all was well. We found out that the Internet connection was down and this caused the problem and meant that we didn’t have Internet access on the wifi.
We walked into the village but, like many other wine villages that we have visited, it was unexciting. In particular, the only bar, where we had hoped to have a drink, was unappealing.
Photos: The Museum of Prehistory at Grand Pressigny is housed in a partly restored chateau; An example of the famous Neolithic flints produced in this area – producing flint blades of this length requires great skill and very high quality flint.