The monolithic bell tower and Place du Marché

This is the frame that makes Saint-Émilion recognisable. On the Place des Créneaux a tall bell tower stands on level ground with nothing under it but rock — because the church it belongs to was hollowed out of the limestone in the twelfth century and lies entirely below, invisible from the street. The tower can be climbed for a rooftop view over the pale tile roofs and out to the vineyards on every side.

Directly below, the Place du Marché is the village's living room: café tables under plane trees, and the bare rock face of the church closing one whole side of the square. Shoot from the top of the steps for the tower and the square together, or from the far corner of the terrace for the tower rising over the roofline.

Go before ten. The lanes are genuinely empty then, the low sun is warm on the limestone, and by noon in summer both the square and the terrace are full. The tower climb is ticketed at the tourist office and closes early out of season; the underground church is seen only on a booked guided tour.

The stairs to the tower are narrow and steep, and the square outside is paved in rounded cobbles that heels sink into — a session here moves in flat shoes and changes only where the ground is level.