7 Normandy; Mont-Saint-Michel

We sadly left the next morning. Yolande sent us off with a doggie bag of hard sausage, pâté, and fruit. We left the safety of our personal tour guide and interpreter to start our adventure in Normandy. After our food scare at the castle the first stop was the grocery store in Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys. Since we were familiar with this store it was easier to locate items and we know what to do and how to behave. Armed with french bread, ham, chicken, cheese, sausage, pâté and wine we continued on our way to Mount St Michael a two hour drive. We had to eat lunch in the car because we could not find a place to stop with our limited skills. We were driving in the wind and rain which slowed our progress. Mount St Michael is a famous monastery that sits in the English Channel atop a small island mountain 3000’ in circumference and 265’ high about a mile from the coast. It is surrounded by the sea at high tide separating it from the shore; at low tide it is surrounded by the sea floor for as far as the eye can see. It looks like a fantasy castle soaring above the sea into the sky. It is fortified at the at the bottom by huge stone walls that circle the island protecting a small medieval town within. The town wraps around the island in an upward spiral. On top of the mountain sits an immense Abby toped with a spire, crowned by a statue of St. Michael. We arrived at 2:30p, had to park in a lot three miles from Mt St Michael, take a bus shuttle to the Mount then walk a quarter of a mile to the front gate. We hiked a half mile up through the village on very narrow, cobbled, crowded streets to the foot of the Abby. We stood in line for 30 min to buy tickets,10 euros each to enter the Abby. All of this was done in the pouring rain. We only had enough time to run through the Abby because we needed to get to our hotel ‘Côté Campagne’ by 7:00p. If we did not arrive on time, we would be left out in the dark in the middle of the country in the rain and wind storm with no where to stay . Poor Jim had to curtail his photo shoot of the Abbey. We had to work our way back to the car the same way we came in, Ugh! When we got to the parking lot we had no idea where we parked but by divine intervention from St Michael we found it. We were soaked even with our rain coats but it was worth it. Our trip to the hotel took 2 hrs because of the storm. We arrived just in the nick of time as the owner was on her way to her car as we pulled in. She was very pleasant and the room was marvelous, clean, comfortable and as cute as can be. We carried our bags through the rain up 2 flights of stairs, Jim with his giant bag that he will never take on vacation again. Thank goodness we had gone to the grocery store: no restaurants or stores existed in the area. We broke open our food and wine and could not have been happier. This was the start of our hotel picnic dinners. We didn’t have to wait until 7:00p to eat. We found it more relaxing not having to search for a restaurant after spending the entire day searching where we were going and then searching for our hotel, on top of trying to read the menu as well as communicate in French. We started keeping our eyes peeled for

supermarkets which were far and few between. This practice saved the day many times. The wild wind and rain continued all night whipping our little country inn but we were warm, comfortable and full. Ahh!