Today was a day that I kept thinking, “oh, if only my family
were here, this is so cool, and will be impossible to explain!.” St Michel is one of those places that you
know has probably been spotlighted by National Geographic somewhere a long the
line.
To get there you park and take a nice walk through some
fields….
Normandy poppies in a wheat field. They were growing everywhere, in yards, irrigations ditches, and along the edges of all the crop fields.
….and when you get to the shuttle stop you climb on to a
very cool shuttle. This carries you
across a narrow spit of land that has connected the island to the mainland (and
ruined the natural water currents, so it is now being reconstructed). What is unique about this tram is that the
driver sits in the drivers seat and takes you to the entrance, and then he
walks to the “back” of the bus where he gets into the other drivers seat and
just takes the bus back the other way without ever turning it around.
Mont Saint-Michel is an island with Baroque churches piled on top of Romanesque buildings piled on top of structures from the
middle ages. By the 1700’s though this
island was full! The houses, sidewalks,
churches, cemeteries, gardens exists side by side in a web like fashion that
makes you feel like you are walking through a maze, except that this one has
very high, steep walls, and you are always aware that things are climbing up
above you on one side, and falling down steeply on the other. The view is
either rooftops, which I found very charming; or soaring walls which I found to
be majestic.
Nuns who were here as tourists also.
A famous restaurant that still makes its omelets over the fire!
I love roof top views. Maybe they make me think of Mary Poppins, but really I think they just make believe that life is cozy and friendly!
This little island has figured out how to have flower gardens....
winding paths...
...and cemeteries.
Occasionally there is a break and you catch a glimpse of the
ocean, or vast low tide beaches that are full of quicksand. All of this made this island a formidable
outpost for the invading English.
The Benedictine Abbey that rests one the very top has long
been a stop on the trail of religious pilgrims that have traveled through
France for centuries. Today there are
only 12 Priests and a handful of Nuns that maintain and occupy the Abbey, but
many come and visit.
Everything on this island is vertical....
....you just look up....
...and up....
....and if you're careful, and look down you occasionally you notice that in their effort to use every single square inch on this island they just built around rocks they couldn't move.
The church
Sitting on a wall on the church courtyard, Kelli is holding on to me so...
...I don't fall off backwards.
Every paver in the patio had a number or a letter that identified the monk that made that specific paver.
A beautiful courtyard in the center, I love the double arches and the individual carvings. This is Bro. and Sis. LaBras, our program directors.
These buildings had wood ceilings which we haven't seen many of. But what is most interesting here is the dining tables that line the walls. The monks that lived here in the past always took a vow of silence and so when they ate the tables were arranged like this with the monks on the outsides facing the center of the room. This discouraged visiting, and they had hand signals they would use to communicate with.
More use of the natural rocks.
Vertical...
and narrow.
..and stacked on top of each other. When you ordered a sandwich this guy would literally just yell down this shaft and then the food would magically appear via their pulley system.
The high point of Chloe's day, a mango creamsicle!
The clouds came rolling in as we left.
**********
Our other stop for the day was St-Malo, a fortified city a little south of St. Michel. When we got there the town was completely shrouded in fog and there was very little to see, which made Bro Labras very sad.
Our view on the ocean side was probably less then a quarter
mile, and so when you reached the tourist map that identified everything that
should be within view, we couldn’t see any of it. I’m pretty sure that it’s quite spectacular
on a clear day.
This was a walled fortress that was a nice walk
But honestly there isn't much to say about this particular stop. I think the fog really killed the experience.
So instead of paying as much attention as we should have to
the history and construction, everyone just went to the beach and played in the
water.
***********
Couple of miscellaneous pictures
The sink at our restaurant. I was thinking this would be cool in a master bath---hint hint!!
Our dinner was amazing and I didn’t get a picture of the
best part, a buckwheat crepe that was wrapped around the best salmon I have
ever had, all surrounded by a bed of vinaigrette salad, or the the main dish which was
delicately herbed potatoes with chicken and a roasted apple….
But dessert was the very best crème brulée I’ve ever had.
And just for fun, at our hotel that night these were the showers and toilettes that we shared for the floor! Awesome!!
No comments:
Post a Comment