We got up early and headed to the train station, hoping to catch an early train to Mont St. Michel. Unfortunately, the France train transportation system decided to have yet another day of striking. Most lines weren’t funning with exception of a few late in the afternoon or early evening. So, we waited all day (10:00-5:25) for a train which only took us 15 km where we then had to transfer to a bus to ‘enjoy’ a 2.5-hour ride to the town of Pontorson (right outside Mont St. Michel).
Fortunately for us, we had great company while waiting at the station all day. We befriended a couple of Americans, an Aussie, a Kiwi (New Zealand) and a Canadian. The Kiwi, Ben, ended up traveling with us to Mont St. Michel. We got into town close to 7 p.m. and checked into a 3-bedroom hotel room which we were glad to share for only 14 Euros each! We enjoyed a dinner in the restaurant downstairs: Kiwi Ben and I had pretty much the same meal – we started with French fish soup, had steak and fries for our main dish, and he had meringue and I had pistachio and French vanilla ice cream for dessert; Ben had pate to start, grilled ham with gravy and rice for his main course and apple sorbet with apple brandy for dessert. Our dinners were only 11 Euros each - pretty good deal for a huge dinner!
We walked our full selves upstairs and enjoyed some wine and beer while we watched the 3rd place World Cup Rugby match between France and Argentina – Argentina won!
Saturday, Oct. 20th:
Bonjour!
This morning, the three of us got up early and headed to the market to buy a picnic lunch (baguette, juice, ham, and cheese – same old, same old) for our Mont St. Michel excursion. We met a fellow American (Portland, Maine), Allison, at the train station who joined us on the bus ride and excursion.
So a little about Mont-Saint-Michel…its history dates back to 704 when Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, had a sanctuary built on a Mont in honor of the Archangel (Angel of Battle). In the 10th century, an abbey was built and by the 14th century, the town extended as far as the foot of the rock. The greatest part of it is that at high tide, the sea crawls all the way up to the lower rock, surrounding Mont St. Michel with water. Unfortunately, there is no public transportation going out of Mont Saint Michel at night so we were unable to witness unique event.
While driving up to the Mont, we were immediately impressed with its grandeur. Along the way, we saw herds of sheep eating along the meadows leading up to the Mont. When we arrived, we walked back down the road for a few minutes to take some pictures of the sheep and the Mont. Afterwards; we started trekking up the Mont towards the Abbey where we enjoyed a self-guided tour. The Abbey, interestingly, was pretty bare-bones compared to the other churches we’ve visited around Europe but still impressive.
Although we were frustrated at the French for striking (and they get 6-weeks paid vacation – not bad I say) and for waiting all day to get out here, it was definitely worth it. If any of you plan to make a trip out to France in the near future, be sure to make Mont – Saint –Michel one of your stops!
We got back into town just in time to take the afternoon train to Nantes – a town south of Normandy. We will stay here for the evening and head for Bordeaux tomorrow morning where we plan to spend a couple days in.
Till then- AU REVOIR!!!
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