St. Emillion on a Sunday in September

Given that St. Emillion is so heavily dependent on tourism, especially wine tourism, I'm assuming most of the wine shops would be open on Sunday. We were recently there on a Saturday, and it seemed like all there were in the town were wine shops. A beautiful town, but a little too touristy for me. 2 hours there was plenty.

We enjoyed the wineries nearby, especially Canon which is a beautiful walk from the top of the town, more than the actual town. Tours almost always have to be made by appointment but we have found them all very nice and well worth the nominal charges, if any. That said you may not be able arrange a Sunday tour but perhaps an early one on Monday morning before you depart for Sarlat. I can highly recommend Canon as our favorite. This is the link for St Emilion's tourism http://www.saint-emilion-tourisme.com. You can find lists of wineries and if you click on them they have their days open for tours and the link to make a reservation. Some shops (they only list a few) are also shown and the site has some other useful info. P.S. The Wednesday market in Sarlat is great fun.

I made the drive on a Sunday that was also a holiday and everything seemed to be closed. I wish I had planned ahead to stop at one or two of the small chateaus along the way. Chateau may not be the right word but there are small farms with big wine labels printed on the side of the buildings which I assume are the same as on the bottles. I set the GPS to avoid the toll road and enjoyed the scenery while going through some very small villages. I wouldn't try and hurry and make the better part of the day doing the drive. Even though it's about three hours I'd stop more knowing what I know after having done it already.