A Nice Day for a Walk

16 April – Mont Saint Michel

This hotel really wasn’t that great. You could feel the springs in the bed, and the pillows were flat. But, the breakfast buffet was really good! There were even crêpes.

We only had a little over an hour of driving to get to Mont Saint Michel.

We stopped on the way to buy some gas, and it was also right next to a supermarket, so we stopped in to buy a few things. I was only buying some cookies, and I was behind a guy who had already put all of his things on the belt. When he saw I only had one thing, he asked if I wanted to go ahead of him. I wasn’t going to, but Heidi was already through her line, so I said yes and thanked him. He smiled and winked at me. Did I mention he was really hot? Yeah, he was a super hot French guy, and he winked at me. You can ask Heidi, he was really hot. In fact, he kept coming up in conversation throughout the day.

It rained a bit while we were driving, but once we got there it stopped and it was sunny or partly cloudy for the rest of the day. But, it was really cold. Normandy in April is really cold. The wind coming off the ocean was very strong, and it was just cold! I’m so glad it wasn’t raining, because that would have been miserable.

Mont Saint Michel is super touristy, and I wondered how they were going to handle all the cars. There is a little “town” (it’s just hotels and stuff) at the end of the causeway leading to the island. Before you even get into the town, there is gated parking. You can’t even enter the town with a car unless you have a parking code from your hotel. We didn’t have that yet, so we had to call and get it. There are shuttles that take you back and forth to the island, because it’s just not possible to park. And the shuttles are awesome! They’re the push-me-pull-yous of busses. They have two fronts, and the driver just switches sides and drives in the other direction once he gets to the end, because there’s no room to turn a bus around. I wonder if it just drives in reverse one way, or if there are two engines and transmissions. Maybe even two gas tanks?? I don’t know!

We got there at noon, but we were able to check in early because our room was open. It’s pretty nice. Then we hopped on a shuttle and headed to the island. It’s so cool! It’s just as magical as I’d hoped.

You could see tons of people walking out in the tidal flats, but on closer look they’re covered in mud up to their knees. It looked fun at first, but we definitely weren’t prepared for that.

We found a place to eat, and honestly it wasn’t that good.

I had some bad soup, and salmon pasta, and chocolate mousse that was good. Heidi had her goat cheese again, and chicken, and a Carmel pudding thing.

After that we went into ever single shop looking at stuff. Heidi really wants to find a white cow, but we haven’t had any luck yet. Lots of cows, but they’re not white.

Then we walked up, up, up, to the Abbey. It costs 9E to get in. It was pretty amazing. The whole thing is a complex fortress.

We had originally planned on eating dinner there too, but decided to have it back at the hotel.

We took the shuttle back to the hotel and rested for a bit, and then decided to walk the 2k to the island before dinner. It was very cold with nothing to block the wind.

Dinner was actually really good.

I got a salmon terrine, lamp chops, salad, and a caramel Sunday thing. Heidi got goat cheese salad, cod, cheese, and a white cheese mousse with fruit. Heidi’s cod was absolutely delicious! The sauce was amazing. My lamb was pretty good, but it was literally about 4 bites. It was a 30E menu, and was pretty good.

We finished dinner about 30 mins before sunset, so it was perfect timing to walk to the island again while watching the sun set! It was even colder the second time, but it was worth it.

We also booked our last hotels for the trip. We’re almost done! It’s sad, but we’ve also so many amazing things. It’s been quite the trip.