Weekend in Normandy, Mont St. Michel, and St. Malo

We have now been in Paris for two weeks! Only one more week in Paris before we head down to Aix on September 12th. I do think Aix will be very different, since we will be more settled and taking classes regularly. I have loved Paris, but it will be nice to settle down to a more regular routine in Aix and enjoy being out of the big city!

This past weekend, we all went to Normandy, Mont St. Michel, and St. Malo! What diverse, interesting, and fascinating places. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 8am on Friday morning, but having been well-trained by Masson, the whole group was on the bus and ready to go by 7:45am. The drive wasn't too bad, and by noontime we had arrived at the Arromanche Bay. This quaint little town is known for the D-Day invasion at the end of World War II and Operation Overlord. We spent some time by the beach and walking around before going on our museum visit.

Arromanche Bay

After our afternoon in Normandy, we head over to Pontorson - a small village near Mont St. Michel - where we spent the night. Dinner was at the hotel, and of course it was spectacular because Masson ordered it. We had a 4-course meal, along with bread, white wine, and red wine. It was delicious!

Saturday morning, we were up and about by 8am, and we made it to Mont St. Michel before most other tourists. This community village was truly a fascinating place to visit! It looked just like the castle in Disney, and walking in the village itself was like jumping back in time. At the top of the isle is the abbey. When there is high tide, the water floods over the land, and Mont St. Michel becomes an island. But during low tide, there is a single road that leads to Mont St. Michel. What is very interesting is that there are only 26 inhabitants in the entire place! Everybody must know each other.
Also - Masson had warned us ahead of time that we would be very very cold at Mont St. Michel, so we all packed like we were heading to Antartica. (Sidenote: Almost un-vacuumed packed my big red winter jacket, but later decided against that, for fear of being unable to vacuum pack it back in. Correct choice). Upon arrival, we realize it was simply a nice, breezy, foggy day, and our winter jackets, hats, and cashmere scarfs were all too much. As the lovely Kirstin said, she was "sweating through [her] head."  :)

Mont St. Michel

Inside the abbey, there were models of how Mont St. Michel developed over the years. This model shows Mont St. Michel in its present state

Here is Mont St. Michel when it was first discovered in the 8th century!

After our visit to Mont St. Michel, Madame took us to get delicious crepes in Pontorson. For my main course, I had une galette super complète, with egg, ham, bacon, mushrooms, cheese, and onions. For dessert, I had Amantine, with almonds, crêpe au chocolat, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream! Yummy.

Amantine

After lunchtime, we drove another hour-ish to St. Malo, a quaint little town on the coast of Bretagne. We had lots of free time for the rest of the evening, so we mostly just walked around in the old city. And today, we got to sleep in, and finally left to return to Paris at 11am. Because of the rain and bad traffic, we didn't make it back home until 6pm-ish! But all in all, a very nice weekend.

Tomorrow: Sacre-Coeur, shopping, and laundry!

And I will end with this beautiful picture that has nothing to do with Normandy or Bretange....but it just makes me smile!