Day 3: Driving to Normandy and Mont Saint Michel

I slept awfully again. Waking up at 3am sharp. Fell back asleep around 6 and decided to get up at 9:30. The original plan was to be at the Sixt car rental agency when they opened at 8. Ended up not departing Paris until 11:30 between shower, packing, storing luggage at hotel, walking there, and the paperwork and waiting for them to fetch the car. In retrospect I should have taken the metro and shaved about 20 mins off.

My good little Citroen

I headed out for my three and a half hour drive to Mont Saint Michel in Normandy through the countryside. It was a nice drive, but I forgot to account for how much extra time it takes to actually get out of a French city, plus stopping for the tolls.

Taking the 1 1/2 mile walk to the "island/peninsula".

The main entrance.

So I didn't get there until 4. I knew entrances to the cathedral were cut off at 5 and the tour closed at 6 so there wouldn't be a problem. Or so I thought. I checked into my hotel on the island town, the mouton Blanc, dropped off my backpack, then marched up the few hundred feet of steps to the top of the mountain where the cathedral was for the tour. Phew! I made it to the ticket desk at 4:45. Plenty of time for the self guided tour. However, the employee at the front desk thought otherwise and refused to sell me the audio tour although he was quite happy to sell me admission. The audio tour was an hour and 15 minutes long, but I generally skip or fast forward through certain parts I'm not interested in for audio tours. We went around a few times, and I came close to telling him what kind of person I thought he was and decided better. So I just payed admission and wandered through which turned out fine. It was a pretty interesting cathedral as far as they go, but I decided then and there that it's the last one I go see.

Something occurred to me when I was there that got under my skin that might have something to do with that. I was thinking about all the squandered resources that went into the building of the site over the many years. And then all the people that dedicated themselves to being monks or religious people. Then of all the people who spent weeks at great personal cost to make the trek there. What a staggering waste that could have been set to a better use.

A view up at the cathedral walls. It was a nice quiet evening walk around.

Being used to dinner service starting between 7 and 8 in Paris, I decided to take a 15 minute nap before heading out after coming down from the cathedral. When I woke up and descended on the town for dining, I rediscovered the fact that small villages close down early, so there were only two places open. One of them being the hotel I was staying at which I have a general policy not to eat in when it can be avoided. It was the cheaper option with some set menu choices I was more keen on though.

I ordered the assortment of hors d'ourves, an Omelette de la Mt St Michel, and something unremarkable for dessert. The first course ended up being a salad separated into its constituent parts and spread around the plate with onion dressing sprinkled on. Not exactly what I was expecting. The omelette on the other hand was pretty interesting. They whipped eggs and cream into an almost meringue or whipped cream like texture, then fried it golden brown on one side and folded it over. I need to try that on my own some time.

From the top of the cathedral. Note the low tide.