Blogs from Mont Saint-Michel, Lower Normandy, France, Europe - page 2

Mont Saint-Michel. Our first stop on this day was to be Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy. This would be followed by a visit to Omaha Beach, site of the American Forces D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. I was excited at both these prospects. Pictures of Mont Saint-Michel had always struck a chord of wonder, rising, as it does, pyramid-like out of the sea to a perfect pinnacle formed by the spire of the abbey. What was exciting about Omaha Beach was that it was just down shore from Juno Beach, where Canadian troops had landed. We were on a special mission related to Juno Beach. The drive to Mont Saint-Michel took about 3 hours and went through rolling Normandy farmland featuring a lot of canola and flax. Cindy drew our attention to the ... read more

We are heading to Mont. St. Michel at the edge of the Normandy region today, and I woke up feeling like my fever had gone down a bit but the pressure in my head was like someone was in there banging on the inside to get out....UGH. We had a small breakfast before hitting the road to the Mont (3.5 hours). I slept most of the way, but we did make a stop at one of the many rest stops that they have on their highways. They are quite possibly the nicest we have ever experienced. Self cleaning and well kept. The overall landscape is heavily farmland. It's pretty amazing actually how many farms there are.Mont St. Michel actually has ... read more

We arrived late at Mont Saint Michel on Sunday, and we were absolutely mesmerised by the medieval charm of this place. It wasn’t until Monday that we started to explore the medieval streets and the Abbey. The Abbey was amazing and its history was really interesting. The views from up there were fabulous. After exploring all this for most of the morning, we then decided to walk across the sand flats, as the tide was out, towards another island to see the abbey from another perspective. Later in the evening, after the sun had set, we went out to the causeway to see the Abbey floodlit. Mont Saint Michel has been one of the high point for us on our trip so far, and we would recommend it to anyone. Just be warned about the vast ... read more

Day 12 Starts well with a hearty breakfast at our B & B but then it turns not so good. Finally get Stella (or is it Sylvia) -our GPS voice back. That is the good news, bad news is that I suff up the location and don't quite follow Stella's instructions and end up a long way in the wrong direction and have to do a U turn to get back on track. Finally back where we wanted to be and have a very nice time by the beach and the English Channel (very warm and sunny day). Lots of really old buildings to see, along with a few castles/forts built on rock outcrops guarding the entry to the port. Also see some guys getting trucks onto the beach to cross a low tide road to ... read more

Our trip to Mont Saint-Michel was today, and didn't get off to a great start. The bus left an hour late, and then on the way out of Paris, someone got hit by a car at a pedestrian crossing, and we had to stop for about half an hour. To top it all off, we had a group of 4 seriously annoying American girls on the bus who would not stop talking! Our 4 hour bus ride actually turned out to be a 5 hour bus ride, and once we arrived, we were given a measly 2 hours to explore this wonderful old abbey. The original structure was built in the 7th century, and construction continued all the way through till the 18th century. Throughout history, it was never claimed by a foreign aggressor, and was ... read more