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Le Mont-Saint-Michel, France

We only had half an hour to eat our breakfast before our tour departed at 8am. French breakfasts are traditionally light like in Italy; coffee and a croissant or sweet cake, but this hotel provides a limited but quality full breakfast with the usual scrambled eggs I steer clear of.
However; I did cut a clear track to the baguette basket and then to the special temperature controlled cabinet which housed the butter, yoghurt, fruit salad and cheeses. Oozy Camembert, a round sticky goat with soft rind and cherry tomatoes did nicely with my coffee. Armed with a nectarine we bounced downstairs to meet our Brazilian guide, Giselle.

Giselle came to France 10 years ago to do her degree in history as it only cost about 600 euro per term to study here. It was a lot cheaper for her parents to send her to France than pay for education in Brazil. She met her husband along the way and has made France her home, running tours in the summer and doing other interpretation work.

Lively as a Brazilian carnival and equally passionate and knowledgable she filled up the 2 hour trip to Saint Mont Michel with a summarised history of the area and the conception of the Abbey which is the second most visited site in France, second to the Eiffel tower. On route we detoured first to the city of Caen which is 15 minutes in the opposite direction towards Paris to pick up another passenger.

When we first came up on the train Caen did not look a very nice place but via the streets it has some quite interesting and scenic parts. It suffered a lot of damage in the war but they have faithfully restored most of it. There are lots of stone houses, and half timbered Normandy style. Also in the middle of town is an old fort of the William the Conqueror, which is now a university and museum inside.

The countryside is very scenic with rolling green hills, large trees, some Friesian and Charolaise herds, and even some decent sheep filled paddocks. Giselle said the Normandy lamb is prized for its tenderness and flavour due to grazing on the salty flats. Sounds like an invitation to test the truth to me. We even saw a dead badger on the side of the road, which surprised her too as the sight is not so common. I was surprised how big it was, like a medium to large solid dog. Along with the livestock there were lots of alternating fields of maize, a grey green grain, and a pale yellow grain, making for an idyllic painting scene under the hazy blue summer sky.

When we were nearly there we started to glimpse the alluring sight of the pointed spire crowning the ancient abbey which grows dramatically out of the rock, on the mountain, in the sea. Armed with its history, including many wars and murderous Vikings we were in the right zone to appreciate what a special, almost mystical place it is.

Very briefly, it dates back to around 700 when over a period of time Aubert Bishop of Avranches had three separate dreams where he was visited by the Archangel Michael asking him to build church on a mountain. Aubert struggled with the idea, but after the third visitation he believed it was genuine and set about the challenge of finding the right place to build in a fairly flat area. There is more to the story, but the first church was completed in 708 on the tallest Mountain in the bay. Not an easy task at all with quick sand, fast tides, and having to carry every stone across the way.

The ‘mont’ soon became a place of pilgrimage and in the 10th century Benedictine Monks settled in the abbey and a town began to grow below the walls. It was an impregnable stronghold during the 100 years war and it resisted all English assaults. Some say the angel has always protected it…..

The collection of buildings today include add on’s from the 10th to the 14th century. It has an extension and restoration work to the main church which suffered a lot from fire damage in the 1800s. Much of the architecture is considered a feat due to the task of literally building a HUGE set of buildings on top of a pointy mountain. In effect they put a platform up the top for the cathedral and then built down into, out of and against the rocks for the other 3 levels. The old town is nestled against the mountain base at the bottom of the cathedral. They say it would have required very precise and learned engineering calculations, not to mention the logistics of building on a mountain, in a tidal bay with quick sand! Oh yes and everything carted by hand too, as animals were not suited to the quick sand, wet bay and rocky mountain.

We were fortunate that our guide had a sneaky spot and ‘connections’ so we got deposited close to the abbey and didn’t have to walk the 2.5 km causeway like most did before doing the 700 steps to the top! So like pilgrims we made our way through the medieval town up the steps, only stopping a couple of times. Our step fitness has improved greatly on holiday – thankfully!

Giselle also got us in free, apparently some argument or dispute was going on, so whala in we went where she handed us onto the English tour guide. The tour guide was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the informative 1 hour tour up, down, and around the Abbey. I actually thought the site would be a “check” day, but it really was a highlight and something I would highly recommend.

An interesting thing to see was the treadmill (pictured). Now confession, I use the word treadmill for its meaning. I thought it was more a thing animals did, like oxen pulling a wheel around to grind grain. Well blow me down, those hamster exercise wheels are based on things HUMANS ran around on to power things like cranes in this case to lift heavy items up. So I have learnt something! And then later in the day we saw one at the fair which kids were running on LOL. Scary reminder that I will have to hop back on one when I get home very soon!

After the tour we had free time and thought we would sample a special omelette at a famous place in the town touting a secret family recipe cooked on a wood fire. We sat down and nearly laid our own eggs when we saw price on the menu €39 per omelette. Yes that’s about 64 NZD. Sorry but I could not do it even with gold dust on top, so I said to Vernon let’s go somewhere else to which he happily exited the restaurant with me.

A couple of doors up we enjoyed very good mussels and a simple smaller omelette without the fame for 9 euro. The mussels as you can see are tiny compared to the New Zealand Green Lipped but I find them more palatable being sweeter and more delicate. The omelette was a fluffy omelette, and a fluffy omelette is a fluffy omelette – it was no different to ones I would cook back home. IMO they undercook them here, but we have had one in situ where they originated so thats a check list.

We enjoyed the scenery as we drove home and then got changed and headed out to see what the medieval festival was all about and find some street food. The festival is very popular and many get dressed up in medieval clothes, top to tail to get into the spirit of things. The children dressed up looked especially cute – little maidens and Robin Hood look a likes. In the car park next door to our hotel they had about 15 or so traditional game tables with unusual games or skills tests. It was great to see families enjoying them amongst smokey smells of meat cooking and lots of cider drinking.

Next area was near the Cathedral where the children could play on a treadmill looking like human hamsters, following that lots of sales stands from food, sweets, drinks, jewellery and clothes to mention a few. We bought a piece of apple cream pie or tart – deep quiche like buttery melt in the mouth NOM and headed round the corner where we heard music.

Small upload worth the watch of a very skilled percussionist with bells – in the background the church bell was doing its thing which was transpired to a performance between competing and complimenting. It was so cool to experience and see so many others enjoying a real country family style festival. I am under no illusions that the rea
l Middle Ages were tough and smelly – but its fun to celebrate our romanticised view of the positive things of such a time.

After enjoying the music for a while we made it to a Normandy sausage vendor and had a couple of different ones in a rather dry baguette. Not as good as German Wurst, but you can’t beat that smell of BBQ! To finish our roving meal we had the most tender crepes filled with Apricot jam and Nutella – made as we watched for 1 euro each.

Satisfied and tired after a very historic day all round we headed back to our room and polished off a large bottle of cold fruity cider we found on route. Very bad habits developed over here …..

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