End part of our Pre-Cannes trip!

Final scene of the Bayeux Tapestry

Yesterday ended up being a little more eventful than I had at first imagined. We woke up semi-early in the morning so that we would have time to do some sightseeing in Bayeux before leaving that afteroon. Our train was set to leave at 2:26, but annoyingly enough, the hotel wouldn't let us keep our luggage there while we went and did stuff around the town. So we carried it with us. Bayeux, unlike the other towns we've been to, isn't exactly baggage friendly. It is too small to warrant a metro system, and the buses don't run incredibly frequently. So we walked around all morning/early afternoon bogged down by our heavy backpacks and toting our bags. We felt like a bunch of tourists when we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry, a tapestry of one single chunk of cloth running for 70 feet or so, telling the story of William the Conqueror. The craftsmanship was remarkable, and the audioguides were very helpful at seeing how the story unfolds, but we felt rather conspicuous with our big bags. It didn't help that we also had to tote these up the stairs. After we left the tapestry museum we went to take a look at the town's impressive church, but the doors were closed so we decided to head to the train station a little early.

We got there with no problem at all. Since we were early, Hayley whipped out her new kindle and I tried to find my book in my bags. Unable to find it anywhere, I could only assume that I had left it in our hotel room. Our train was set to depart in about 35 minutes. The walk to the hotel took about 13 minutes one way, so if I went back I would be cutting it close, especially since the reception would be closed and I would have to find somebody at the hotel still working to get me into the room we had already checked out of. I hate leaving things behind. Although Hayley looked a bit exasperated, I decided to run for it. I made it to the hotel in surprising time (I guess I am a better runner than I give myself credit it for) and had my book in hand a couple minutes later. On the way out however, I somehow managed to take a fall. On the way down I wrenched my ankle pretty badly. At first I didn't think it was a big deal, but when I put my weight on it, it smarted pretty badly. Not wanting to miss our train, I started slowly hobbling back. I made it back in time, thankfully, and looked down at my ankle. It was a bit swollen up and hurt to walk on, but I didn't think it was broken or sprained. It feels really stiff today, and I have a wicked nasty bruise, but I'm otherwise fine. I felt like an ass after it happened yesterday, though. The bitter irony of it, however, was that we missed our train anyway. We watched it come right up in our faces, too. The clock on the wall was about 5 minutes off however, and we thought it was the train before ours. A little belatedly, I noticed that the sign on the train said "Rennes." Our destination. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. The ship had sailed. I went over to the ticket counter to find out when we could get on another train out to Le Mont St. Michel. Sadly, it wouldn't be for another 3.5 hours, so we were pretty bummed out about that. At least I had my book now to pass the time!

We arrived at the Pontorson train station about an hour after we finally got on the train, both of us starving. We had planned on arriving at this train station and taking a bus over to the village outside of the mountain where we were going to be staying for the night. We got a big of luck here, as we made it about 5 minutes before the last bus for the night left the train station. We found our hotel just a minute later (God gave us the gift of a hotel in plain sight of the bus stop) and dropped our stuff and ran out to dinner. We ate at a nice outdoor restaurant, with decent prices but absolutely amazing food. Hayley ordered what definitely placed in my top ten of all time- Norman cider baked ham. It was incredible. So much so that we ended up coming there for dinner again tonight, ordering the same meal. It was to die for. We also enjoyed a nice crème brûlée,  which somehow, I had never tried before, but really liked.

View from the walk up to Le Mont St. Michel

View from one of MSM's many terraces

So today was one of the most mixed feeling days we have had so far. We were both really excited to see Le Mont St. Michel. For me, it was pretty much the main reason for going to Normandy. For those of you who have never heard of it, MSM is a very incredible place. Essentially, it is a giant abbey perched on top of a mountain, with a village built in around it. What makes it special, however, is the fact that it is only accessible for a certain number of hours per day. MSM is surrounded by water, but when the tide recedes, a land bridge is formed (although made of somewhat treacherous sand) that connects the mainland to this beautiful island mountain. Then, when the tide returns, it rushes back in to form a moving moat around the town. Tons of people have lost their lives during this exchange. What makes it more impressive is that there is almost nothing to see for miles and miles around MSM. It is just a vast stretch of grassland, where sheep were brought to graze. The view from far away was extremely impressive, and walking up to this monument to man's ingenuity was a very humbling experience. What left us a little dismayed, however, was that on the eye level, Le Mont St. Michel is a giant island tourist trap. Hundreds of people were crammed into its small streets, over-priced restaurants, and dozens and dozens of gift shops all selling the same over-priced garbage. It was really sad to see. We bought a pass to see the four museums on the island. Some of them were interesting, such as a tour through the prisons or the house of one of the rich Norman nobles who lived on the island. The others though, were rather strange, and one of them our guide spoke so fast (just to get through the tour faster, I imagine) that neither of us could even tell if he was speaking French or just gobbledy-gook). Not surprisingly, each of the museums ended shamelessly in a tour of one of the gift shops. Hayley pointed out on a few occasions that if you look above the first level of the buildings, the place was actually very beautiful. At beautiful it was. If you looked past the stink of human flesh and the greedy shopkeepers, the place was absolutely stunning. It was quite easy for us to get lost among the winding paths, beautiful gardens, and walls overlooking different parts of the city. 

St. Michael, being a G

We slowly made out way up to the Abbey at the very top of the mountain. It was a climb, no doubt. The line to get in was a bit more than I had expected, but well worth the wait. We got in for free, thanks to our 6-month visa's. The place is absolutely huge. It isn't just a chapel. It is a whole monastery. It is pretty much St. John's condensed into a smaller surface area and put on top of a freakin' mountain. There were dining halls, dormitories, small chapels, a tomb, and the big, impressive church that serves as the focal point for Le Mont St. Michel. I wish I could have taken a decent picture of my own, but for lack of one, I'll put a picture from the interwebs to show you the statute on top of the top tower. It is a golden St. Michael, being a total badass, as is his wont. 




 

Where did the water go?

Outside of the big church is a large courtyard overlooking everything. You can see for miles and miles around, and the streets below looked really rather small. Although we were too late to catch one of the guided tours, we still really enjoyed strolling around (even if it meant not knowing what a lot of the stuff was) and I did overhear one interesting factoid when we finally got up with the end of the earlier tour. About four million people visit this incredible place every year. The shocking thing is that 3/4 of them check out the gift shops, over-priced restaurants, and rather crappy museums and say that that is all there is to this place. Most of them don't make it up to see what makes the sight a true wonder. That just shocked me. But standing on the very top of the tower, looking out over what was now just a vast swath of sand on the horizion (the mountain was surrounded by water when we arrived, but now there was almost nothing left of it to see, except for a few puddles) I was truly glad that we had made it here. It was a great way to end our trip. 

From here, we have some serious trainage to do. It is actually going to be a headache. In the morning, we take a bus from MSM back to the Pontorson train station, take a train to Rennes, then to Paris, switch from one Paris station to another via the metro, take an overnight train from Paris to Toulon (about 9 hours), then take a semi-short train from Toulon to Cannes, where our school is. Then we have to take a taxi or bus or something from the train station to the College, since we are the only ones arriving by train. Bleh. What a headache. On the bright side, we're almost done with our hectic traveling and can enjoy some solid beach time in Cannes. And hopefully some warmer weather. I don't expect that I will have the time nor the internet connection with which to blog until Friday night, so I suppose it is goodbye until then. Sorry for the monster-sized post for today. As I mentioned in my first post, this is as much for me to be able to look back on later to jog my memory as it is for you guys to keep up with us, so I didn't want to leave out anything! I should also be available for skype at some point on Friday night as well, so if you are interested, we can set something up then!