A day at Mont St. Michel.

The day after Île de Bréhat we visited Mont St. Michel, which is a iconic landmark (and, thus, super touristy, but for good reason). It was amazingly, freakishly windy the whole time we were there. I wore sunglasses just to keep the grit out of my eyes, and had my jacket hood up most of the time, just to keep my hair under control. It was intense!

We parked near some fields about a mile from the Mont, and then walked towards it, with the Mont growing in size every minute as we got closer. The tide was out as we got there, so it looked like it was surrounded by vast expanses of salt flats. It used to be that when the tide would come in, the Mont would be totally cut off from the mainland. Since that didn't work out so well with tourists, they built a causeway, which then hindered the natural movement of the tides and caused the bay to silt out. They're currently building a new and improved bridge that will allow for free movement of the water and that will hopefully return the bay to its original state.

Once inside the Mont, we headed straight for the top to tour the abbey. To be honest, for me the tour was nothing to write home about. I realize that may be scandalous, but we were pretty much just wandering through some old buildings that were similar to lots of other old buildings I've seen before. The views were spectacular, though, and the building were grand, so I was quite content to wander around.

 

View back over the bridge construction project.

After our walking tour was completed, we watched the tide come in from the walls. The Mont experiences some of the largest tidal changes in the world, I think (?), and you can watch the water move in, each wave taking it further across the sand. We also had time to do a little souvenir shopping before heading out for the day.

After we said goodbye to Mont St. Michel, we headed back to St. Malo for dinner and were treated to a beautiful view of the harbor at sunset.

Mont St. Michel is beautiful in a fairy tale sort of way and the setting is truly dramatic. It was amazing to see it in person!

Backtracking to a quaint French island.

It has been almost two months since I last posted about my trip to France with the Pattons, with a trip to the US happening in the meantime. Now that I'm back and re-settled, I'm going to try to backtrack in order to get caught up to the present time. Since I had the pictures sorted, I just needed to pull myself together enough to blog about them. Of course, two months is a long time ago, so my memory of exactly what happened is a little fuzzy, but there will be pretty pictures!

One of the nicest days on our trip was spent on the Île de Bréhat, a super cute, quaint little island off the coast of Brittany. We drove to a ferry, which we took at low tide for 10 minute ride to the island. Apparently there are 3 different dock positions on the mainland and island, which are used at different points, depending on how high the tide is. When we arrived at the island, we landed at the furthest out of these points. When we left in the evening, that dock was entirely under water, and we left from the highest dock position. So interesting!

I always think these boats look sad, just waiting for the tide to come back!

We wandered out of the main port area and around the island, finding a beach with a little restaurant on it just in time for lunch. The houses were so amazingly cute, and the lanes were small and adorable.

 

After lunch, we walked on the beach, picking up shells and admiring everything, especially the pink color of the rocks!

Pink rocks!

 

Then the sun came out in earnest, and we started our tour of the island. I really have no idea how far and where we walked, but we rambled around the island, first hugging the shore, then cutting in to the village, then towards some lighthouses on the other side of the island. Around every bend there was something new and beautiful to see, between the quaint houses, lush gardens, and turquoise-y blue ocean.

A family with its priorities sorted: stopping to smell the roses.

Eventually, we headed across the island toward some lighthouses, which we didn't exactly find and/or were not attractive enough to warrant a closer inspection. But the fields and houses were fantastic enough! The fact that the weather was so nice was also a treat after all of the cold weather we had experienced on the trip so far.

Our final stop was a church on top of a hill with great views across most of the island. The church itself wasn't super impressive, but the view was. The whole island looked like something out of a storybook!

Finally, we made our way back to the ferry, which we caught in the nick of time. Jessi and Brian had gotten on the ferry, when I realized that I couldn't find my ticket and was nervous that I'd get left behind. Then, I remembered that my ticket was with Jessi who had already gotten on the boat. Luckily, she noticed that I hadn't made it on the boat and got me my ticket so that I wasn't left behind. Although having to spend some extra time on that island wouldn't be the end of the world! Overall, I think this was my favorite day of the trip. There were no crowds, the weather was amazing, and the island was really beautiful, like something out of a painting or storybook.