Mont Saint Michel

So Saturday we (the students of IES) day-tripped up to Mont Saint Michel and the city of Saint Malo. Ben and I agreed to meet at the bus stop for the 7:00 bus. I had to jog a little bit, but I was there on time....he wasn't. Turns out Geoff takes our bus too, so I sat down next to him and we watched Ben come around the corner as we pulled away. We ended up being way early, but I'd rather be early than late.

We all piled into the buses and set off for Mont Saint Michel. It was a really pretty drive, like a hillier version of home with lots of fog and some castles sprinkled throughout. It was about a two hour drive, not too bad, and most people slept or listened to their respective ipods. I had tried to give Christine and Caitlin my ipod with Grey's on it, but for some reason it didn't copy over.

We took one stop for bathroom breaks, it was actually a really fancy rest stop. They'd said on the bus not to buy anything, but EVERYBODY did, except I didn't even bring money in with me and I was starving. We loaded back up, then drove another handful of minutes to the coast. We could see the island from a ways off, its pretty high up in the air. We got up close, then almost literally ran up the side of this miniature mountain because we were pressed for time. We picked up our tickets and got to wander around the monastery for awhile.

The thing with Mont Saint Michel is that its an island, and is only accessible when the tide it out. When the tide is in, all of the roads are covered with water. You have to climb up a really long, steep road past really expensive tourist shops and restaurants to get to the abbey, which to be honest is a little bit of a let down. I'm chalking this one up as one of those spots that probably used to be cool way back before anybody went there, but now is so tourist filled you almost have to crawl over people to get anywhere.

After we'd left the monastery, we went down to get some lunch. I bought a croque monsieur that was not very good, but about all you could find for less than five euro. We ate, poked our heads into shops, and even bought a little bit. I got a Christmas gift for my Grandma, I think she'll like it.

We once again piled back into the bus and drove for another half hour or so to Saint Malo, an ancient walled city. It now proudly proclaims that is hosted villainous pirates and was the departure point for Jacques Cartier when he left to discover Canada (which, incidentally, I'm learning about in my France in the Atlantic World class!) It is still very touristy, but bigger so you're not running over people all the time. We walked out to one of the islands, just a little thing, but its actually the burial ground of Chateaubriand, a famous French writer. There is a plaque that says something about him wanting to hear nothing but the wind and the waves...poor man, instead he gets teenagers sneaking off with bottles of cheap wine and old couples making out on the side of the island. It was pretty funny.

All in all it was a good day, but a busy one. I definitely slept really well Saturday night. Sunday my mom made crepes for dinner...yum! I had one with chocolate, one with sugar and butter, and one with jam! My mom is an amazing cook, the way things are going there is no way I'm going to fit into my clothes when I get back!! I'm trying to run, but it just seems to make me more hungry!

You should be able to follow this link to look at my pictures from this last weekend: http://wartburg.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015991&l=d6ade&id=123700029

And hopefully this one will take you to the rest of the pictures I've taken on the trip thus far! http://wartburg.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015653&l=95b9a&id=123700029