Le Matin at Mont St. Michel

Bonsoir mes amis!  Desolee about the delay in posts, I've been busy the past week with class work and translating French for my family out and about in Paris.  Last night we arrived in Caen (via train) for our weekend in Normandy.  Caen is the capital of the region of Normandy, and was the objective for the Allies during the D-Day invasion.  Much of it is modern, due to bombing in WWII.  However, the cathedral remains, as well as some small winding streets.



Today was jam packed!  We woke up early and drove to Mont St. Michel(western end of Normandy on map below).  Dad did a good job braving the French countryside roads!   We passed lots of sheep and cows on our way to the tiny mountain village and abbey.  



Map of Normandy

 

In front of Mont St. Michel

 The Duckloe clan on the causeway

"Today the sea will not cover this parking lot"

Although this sign seems very humorous, it is not a joke!  The tides at Mont St. Michel are some of the most powerful in Europe, and when the tide is in, the entire island is surrounded by seawater.  When the tide is out, tourists(or pilgrims back in the day) still need to be careful of quicksand.  Thankfully there is a causeway connecting the island to the mainland.  So it is a bit of a tourist trap (literally) but it is stunning to see this village and the abbey rising out of the sea.  Legend has it that St. Michael (the warrior saint) appeared to the archbishop of Arromanches on the island and commanded him to build an abbey on the there.  Sort of a "if you build it, they will come" kind of thing!  Only "they" means pilgrims (and now tourists) and not dead baseball players like in Field of Dreams.  The Benedictine abbey is a national landmark today, and I believe it is still in use!  We saw a few monks walking around the village today and we saw one monk having a cider at the restaurant where we had lunch!

 Street in Mt St. Michel

 Seagulls chilling on a church

    Spire of the Abbey topped with a gilded statue of St. Michael

 Entrance to the Abbey

 Overlooking la mer...

Garden behind the Abbey

 Main chapel

 Statue of St. Michel

Omelet St. Michel!

A 'puffy' omlette, the eggs were light and fluffy.  Yum!

And that was only the morning! Tomorrow I'll try to post about our afternoon at the Bayaeux Tapestry, the Canadian D-Day Museum and Canadian Cemetery.  Tomorrow we're getting up early for our tour of the American plages de debarquement(D-Day landing beaches).  Stay tuned for the rest of my trip to Normandy! 

Bisous,

Allison