We started the day with the 2 1/2 hour drive from Asnelles to Mont St. Michel. I had been there a couple of times before but not for a very long time. Gosh, has it changed! Okay, not the site itself which is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site but how you get to it. The last time I was there, there was a big parking lot on the causeway linking the place to the mainland. I guess with the number of visitors that go there now, that had to change. So, there are now something like 11 huge parking lots alternatively dedicated to either cars or buses quite a ways from the original causeway. Then, to get there you have the option of walking (my GPS said that would take about 45 minutes), use the free shuttle which comes regularly, or pay 6 Euros one way in a horse-drawn wagon. We opted for the shuttle (navette) which was still a 5 or more minute walk from where our car was parked in Lot 7. I can't imagine what this is like in the summer time.
Mont St. Michel and its Bay have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the website this is the info:
Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the 'Wonder of the West', a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site.
I had overheard a tour guide in Arromanches say that the only thing you need to think about Mont St. Michel is that when you are there, you can't take a photo of it. He explained it is the same thing at the Eiffel Tower. True but kind of obvious - not sure if he was encouraging his "charges" to visit or not. So, in spite of the new arrival arrangements, we got off the shuttle, walked to the entrance and went into the village through the medieval gates up the narrow and crowded street toward the abbey at the top. We didn't get far; I was hungry so we stopped at a restaurant with a view over the ramparts over the bay so I could have a crepe sucre citron. The soup that my sister ordered was lovely - and warming.
However, then the "heavens opened" and we were caught in a rainstorm. We gave up on seeing much more and hurried back to the shuttle but that was a good walk and by the time we got there, we were both soaked. Not fun! Then, of course, after being dropped at the shuttle stop, we still had at least a km to walk to our car. That, literally and figuratively, put a damper on our visit here.
Then, we were off again. My friends from Victoria have a home here (actually, a manoir) just south of Nantes. We had asked them if we could spend the night there for a change of scenery - or almost everything. They said yes so we were off again for a 1 1/2 hour drive south through a bit of Brittany toward Nantes and then about 20 km south of there to the tiny village of Maisdon-Sur-Sevre. It was lovely to visit them for so many reasons - first, to see friends and show my sister their home (it was my third visit there), a French manor, rather than hotels and a little beach house. Second, we saw a lot of the countryside as we drove there - the landscape in Normandy is lovely. And, of course, to spend some time with friends.
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| In the wine cellar - around 600 bottles there! |
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| Sampling this year's Muscadet |
We had a great evening but, unfortunately, it was only for one night before we had to get back on our itinerary and head for Reims. That wasn't that bad though as the famous champagne houses of that city awaited!
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