Mount Saint Michel
This weekend was one of the most fun weekends I've had here. Jane, Elaine, Anna and I all hired a car for the weekend and went off site seeing. With Jane driving and me navigating (not quite sure how that one happened) we made our way to Mount Saint Michel.
It was so beautiful, and visible from miles around.
So we got there, parked and made our way through the portcullis gate:
On entering we were all taken aback by how many shops there were. These tiny little street were packed full of grockle shops (shops for tourists full of random tourist souvenirs) and food places.
Climbing up we started to leave the shops behind. In stead we were greeted by hundreds of stairs to take us to the top.
With a couple of rest along the way we finally made it to the top and had a wander round the monastery. The views from the top were breath taking.
You could see down into the streets of the village.
And the huge stretch of sand and grass which stretched back to the mainland.
Mount Saint Michel was originally a tidal island. That means that at high tide it was a regular island but at low tide there is a huge stretch of sand stretching all the way from the mount to the coast. Due to the build up of silt, the causeway (road) in is never flooded and the rest of the mount is only surrounded at really high tides. We learnt in the museums that they intend to do some serious re-landscaping to make the mount into an island once more. Should be good because watching the tide come in looked increadible- we got to see some old footage of it in the museaums
There are four museums on the mount and we figured that since we might never come back (especially Jane-from Canada and Anna- from Spain) that we would do everything. If you ever go though I can safely say that you are not missing much if you don't go to the museums, the redevelopement plans were probably the most interesting bit. The monastry however was good- especially the cathedral. You have to go through it to get to the next part and when we were in there they had a service on. Now one thing I will say about traditional stone churches is that the acoustics are incredible! I had goose bumps listening to the music.
After Mont Saint Michel we drove on to St. Marlo giving Elaine her first visit into Brittany. We had been told that St Marlo was a very pretty place but knowing nothing about the town ourselves it was quite hard to know where to go. We found some prettiness in the old section of the town, munched our way through some yummy snacks (kouign-amann for me, oh yum yum)then headed onto the beach for a last wander before heading back to the car.
As it turned out we ended our day just at the right time. No more than a minute after we had set off home the heavens opened and it chucked it down.
Getting home we had a minor detour due to confusing road signs but other than that it was rather quiet, in all senses of the word, as we were all nackered- it's all that see air dontcha know!
It was so beautiful, and visible from miles around.
So we got there, parked and made our way through the portcullis gate:
On entering we were all taken aback by how many shops there were. These tiny little street were packed full of grockle shops (shops for tourists full of random tourist souvenirs) and food places.
Climbing up we started to leave the shops behind. In stead we were greeted by hundreds of stairs to take us to the top.
With a couple of rest along the way we finally made it to the top and had a wander round the monastery. The views from the top were breath taking.
You could see down into the streets of the village.
And the huge stretch of sand and grass which stretched back to the mainland.
Mount Saint Michel was originally a tidal island. That means that at high tide it was a regular island but at low tide there is a huge stretch of sand stretching all the way from the mount to the coast. Due to the build up of silt, the causeway (road) in is never flooded and the rest of the mount is only surrounded at really high tides. We learnt in the museums that they intend to do some serious re-landscaping to make the mount into an island once more. Should be good because watching the tide come in looked increadible- we got to see some old footage of it in the museaums
There are four museums on the mount and we figured that since we might never come back (especially Jane-from Canada and Anna- from Spain) that we would do everything. If you ever go though I can safely say that you are not missing much if you don't go to the museums, the redevelopement plans were probably the most interesting bit. The monastry however was good- especially the cathedral. You have to go through it to get to the next part and when we were in there they had a service on. Now one thing I will say about traditional stone churches is that the acoustics are incredible! I had goose bumps listening to the music.
After Mont Saint Michel we drove on to St. Marlo giving Elaine her first visit into Brittany. We had been told that St Marlo was a very pretty place but knowing nothing about the town ourselves it was quite hard to know where to go. We found some prettiness in the old section of the town, munched our way through some yummy snacks (kouign-amann for me, oh yum yum)then headed onto the beach for a last wander before heading back to the car.
As it turned out we ended our day just at the right time. No more than a minute after we had set off home the heavens opened and it chucked it down.
Getting home we had a minor detour due to confusing road signs but other than that it was rather quiet, in all senses of the word, as we were all nackered- it's all that see air dontcha know!
posted by Sarah at 10:21 AM
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