Our last morning at the house Saturday Sept 5, then on to the ferry overnight
There are people coming after us but our friend has requested that we cover the furniture as we found it so that they know to do it when they leave as well. By the same token, I feel that we should turn off the electricity (plus what if they don't get here), and take in the gas can for the stove and then they will also know how to leave it. So we do that, close the blinds,clean everything, cover everything, vacuum, take all the trash to the bins, and pack the car.
Our plan is to visit Mont St. Michel. Of course we can’t get it to come up in the new Tom Tom so we look at the map and find a city that is close and put it into the map and we are off
. A lot of small roads still before we get on the freeway. Then we are almost there when I get an oil warning light on the car. Have never had an oil warning light before. My hubby looks it up in the book and we are probably OK. Still, it rather panics me and I am not sure I should be driving the car with this light.
The freeway says that Mont St Michel is straight ahead but our GPS is taking us off the freeway now and going small roads again. I pull over and make it find me a petrol station which is the Super U in St. James. So we go there and check the car. Doesn’t seem to be a problem but we buy oil and put some into the car anyway. Then we eat at their cafeteria because we had to use the toilet and both of us felt we should buy something and then we didn’t want to but couldn’t figure out how to sneak out since we’d already put bread on the tray so we both got some salad stuff and just had a small meal.
Back onto small roads and I am wondering why it didn’t keep us on the freeway when suddenly we are now following signs to Mont St.Michel. I see a "lookout" so we pull up this small street and park and see it in the distance. Then I follow the road until I realize that it is going to take me right across this bridge that they built and up to the front door
. So we turn around and go park in the hotel lot which some French people tell Hubby is OK to do. There is a shuttle just leaving and a bus of Japanese people waiting but we manage to get onto the next shuttle and are driven across the bridge to fairly close where nobody is sure we are supposed to get out or not. We get out and take photos then hop back on just as the bus driver realizes no one is getting off and shoes us all off the bus.
Mont St. Michel looks the same exactly. Except for this horrible bridge now that comes across. I thought the causeway was much more natural looking. And we could have parked at the front door if we had only wanted an hour. Will take us longer than that to hike to the top.
Again, the beginning is just a crowded meandering through the shops and the restaurants to climb higher and higher to get to the Abbey. We weren’t hungry and didn’t want to buy anything to have to carry uphill with us so we just climbed and rested and took photos and climbed. It is a loooonnnnngggg way to the top.
Finally we reach close to the top and there is a museum which my husband wants to visit
. It says it is a historical museum but as we are debating whether to go in or not, we kind of realize it is a wax museum or more of a tourist trap so we pass. The other museums are rather the same so no museums this time.
We find the ramparts and stop to take photos (actually did this first and then to the “historic” museum and then back entrance to the entrance) and then the entrance to the Abbey. OMG. So many more steps to get into the Abbey. I cannot imagine how the nuns did this every day. Another long climb and get our tickets. There is a long line now to get into the Abbey proper and my hubby thinks it might be a scanner but everybody has so much metal with cameras and such. Nope, was just a slow ticket taker.
We are in. We follow the signs that say the route of the visit. Mostly it is big vaulted rooms with maybe a cross at one end or another. Most rooms are chapels of some sort named after a saint or another. I remember distinctly that we wandered a lot more freely when we were here with our daughter way back when. And we also went to the base and walked probably a bit over ½ way around the whole Mont. Tide was out. And while they say there are quicksand spots, we didn’t find any. Now there didn’t seem to be anyway to get to the base plus they probably don’t let you do that anymore but also it just didn’t seem like you could go where you like. They have so many places blocked off now and I remember last time, we would just find a set of stairs, up or down, and decide to try it and see where it went. Not now. So while the Abbey is quite impressive, it is mostly for the views from the Abbey and for the views of the Abbey sitting on top of the rock that is what people come to see
. Not the inside of the Abbey itself.
There were two large silver reflective blow up balls there as well. One was in the courtyard outside the main Abbey chapel and the gift shop. The other was in a large room that might have passed for a ballroom except it being a religious place. Not sure the point of these balls. Also, as you come up to the ticket office,there was a gold covered “dragon claw” over one wall. If you didn’t look up, you’d miss it. And as you came up the steps after getting your ticket, to the first abbey and the information room, there was a large bird head sticking out of one of the windows. Also not sure of the point but interesting to be there and good for a photo opp.
So we wandered the entire Abbey as allowed. Didn’t take the audio tour which really sometimes disappoints hubby to miss it but they talk so slow on these and it takes so much longer to do it. I should let him do it and just sit and wait for him. It’s usually way too much information as well but he’d remember a bunch of it. Next time, next place.
Finally, we get to the exit which leads you through the gardens to the back of the Abbey with views out to sea. Water is in the areas around some of the Mont but not all. So not really sure if the tide is coming or going. We’ve now been here twice and haven’t seen it totally surrounded by water like they have in so many of the photos. I’m not sure that the water does surround it like that anymore. Maybe the people that stay overnight in the hotels inside the gates can see the water come in like that
. It also looks like they have dredged and channeled a lot of the waterways. And there wasn’t a single sheep grassing on the salt grass anywhere close to Mont St Michel. We did remember that it was Easter weekend that we were here last time and on Good Friday which is why our daughter had school vacation and why there wasn’t any mutton being served that Friday.
We stopped a few places looking for some souvenirs and finally got a nice tile, a Bernaurand porcelain tea light holder, and a cookie tin. We also have a couple of bowls from Brittany. But a very light trip shopping wise and certainly not for lack of looking for shops.
We get some soft serve ice cream and eat it then hit the restroom which is the first one we’ve come across where we had to pay. Used to have to pay in most French restrooms. Probably still do at the rail stations.
Then to the car or rather to the very large group of people waiting a few hundred yards up the bridge for the shuttle. We were able to get onto the third shuttle that came by. Seemed like a very long way to get to where we got off and then we weren’t sure and almost didn’t get off. Had to push and shove our way off the shuttle. Into the car and off to Ouistreham to the ferry.
Our friend had recommended eating at a small hotel in St. James but we are pretty much in St. James now and not hungry and also it’s about 5p.m. so we think we’ll find something in Caen or Ouistreham to eat and not worry about it now
. We find our way back to the freeway and haven't’t been driving too long before it begins to rain so I have to use our lights and hope our Eurovision blinders have been put on correctly.
It’s seeming like a long drive. We are getting close to Ouistreham and see a MacDonald’s and figure we’ll just eat there. We pull into the area which includes a Carrefour, a French market like Tesco or Target. We also see a bar/eating place so stop and walk in there. The back of my left leg cramps up as soon as I get out of the car. Yikes. It takes it awhile to uncramp.
The bar isn’t serving food and he tells us to go to Carrefour or McDonald’s so we walk around and hit the McDonald’s. when you don’t make a habit of eating McDonald’s, they aren’t so bad to just have once in awhile but I’m not able to finish mine. Of course, I’ll want more later but oh well.
Over to the Carrefour but can’t really find anything we need. Don’t need more cheese, don’t need wine. Seems a shame because there are plenty of Brits in here stocking up on things to take back to England with them
. They are getting things like spices and soups, and salad dressings and olive oil, plus the cheeses and sausages. Guess we don’t find them to be that good of a bargain or we don’t use the stuff that much. So back to the car and follow the signs to the ferry port and we are about the 7th car in line to enter the port and it is not even open yet.
We sit awhile and it opens fairly soon and we move up and get our cabin keys and our hanging sign for the car. Then we are put into line 5 and sit in front of the gate that is closed, in front of the customs. Sun goes down and we sit and sit and sit and nothing happens. We eventually can see cars coming off a ferry but still nothing. We don’t think the ferry will leave on time. Large trucks have been going through but not us.
Finally people come around and a man starts down our row to check passports. We get a stamp because of not being EU passports. The gates open finally and three rows of cars are funneled through the gate directly in front of us before we go through and then we are at the back of the third line to get onto the ferry. So we are sitting and sitting again. The first row loads and then the second row and then some trucks before we start loading. Can’t figure out where all the other rows of cars went that were outside the gate with us but some start coming in eventually and lining up next to us for row 4 and 5.
When we enter the ferry, we are on the bottom deck so maybe we will be first or last out. Our daughter has wanted to know when we will get home. We want to stop for breakfast so estimate our time at 9:30 or 10 or so
. She's anxious for us to get there and take over the saga of the boiler. The entire time we have been gone, our cat sitter and then our daughter have been wrestling with boiler issues and basically we have no heat at home and no boiler. She'd like to be able to have a late morning sleep in but hasn't been able to for all the repair people coming and going.
We have to climb up two flights of stairs to get to a place where we can find the elevator to the 9th deck where our room is. We now gain an hour in time as we go back to Britain time but the ferry still leaves, on time, at 11 p.m. French time. After a few announcements, it is quiet and we are able to go to sleep. Our Brittany vacation over.
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