No War Today - Market Day & Mont St Michel

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Geo: 49.2764, -0.705529

Last night we had a wonderful dinner at a Rick Steve's recommended restaurant here in Honfleur. We had a light picnic lunch touring D-Day stuff, so we were pretty hungry. Plus, we have to wait until the restaurants re-open at 7 p.m. Luckily the menus were in French and English. Instead of ordering the multiple courses, which is fun, but a lot of food, we focused on what we wanted. I had a wonderful pork tenderloin in a rich mushroom sauce with an unusual but fantastic layered potato/cheese baked yummy goodness. Dot had a baked veggie/polenta dish that she enjoyed. Of course, I had to have my profiteroles for dessert. Covered in chocolate sauce. Yes, I ate all 3 of them.

We ate breakfast at our hotel again this morning. I forgot to tell you that all the guests eating in the breakfast room at 7:30 am are American. This is a Rick Steve's recommended hotel. Either everyone staying here is American, or we are the only idiots eating breakfast that early when we are on vacation.

We got up early to check out the Market Day that was happening right outside our hotel. We needed an early start because we were planning to drive a couple hours to the abby at Mont St. Michel. Most of the market wasn't ready yet, we were a little early. But - a picture and a movie can do it more justice than I can. See the pics below and the movie on Youtube:

We set off on our drive to Mont St Michel armed with our 2 GPS and maps. Of course, the 2 GPS were not in agreement. I guess there are many routes on this little country roads. Not sure if we took the best route, but we eventually made it to the highway. I am getting better at driving here and getting more used to the 6 gears on our car. We are driving a 4WD Dacia Duster if anyone has any idea what that is. A small SUV.

We exited the highway at a sizable gas station to fill up. We knew we needed Diesel, but that is easy here...sort of. First we couldn't get our gas tank open. There is no button inside the car. We could open the door, but the gas cap was round and smooth and we couldn't turn it or get it off. Gary/Kevin would have enjoyed this. So, I walk up to a random guy filling his tank "Parlez vous Anglais?" he replied "un peu" (a little).Probably trying to discourage me. Doesn't matter, I grab him and drag him over to show him our gas cap. He assesses the situation, looks at us like we are idiots and made the universal gesture for turning a key.I hand him the car key (I thought Dot would freak). He looks at it, puts in into the center of the gas cap (which does NOT look like a key hole), turns and removes the cap easily.

So we move on to the self serve gas console, which did not seem to be in English. We kept pushing the language button, not realizing that 3 languages were already on the screen. We choose Diesel, pull the yellow Diesel pump and proceed. Nothing comes out. The screen says we have the wrong pump. Look again - there are 2 Diesel options, of course plain and more expensive. We had chosen the more expensive on the console. Must be the default. Too late, we proceeded and filled our tank. Only lost about 20 minutes.

In our 2 hour to Mont St Michel, at least an hour of which was on a highway, we only passed 1 gas station. (Which means 1 bathroom)

We finally make it to Mont St Michel. It had kind of rained the entire drive, but stopped just in time for us to get to the abby. There is no choice other than to climb up to the abby. Good thing we trained for the Met because it was very steep. The abby is huge. Many rooms, I guess the monks lived here. There is a Cloister - you can see all the pics below.

Mont St Michel is sort of an island. It was an island until they build the causeway to get to the island and blocked some of the water flow. They are talking about demolishing the causeway next year to make it an island again. There is a small village surrounding it on the island that is full of touristy restaurants and shops. Great views from the top. But the best view is looking at Mont St Michel itself. It is very imposing, like it is built out of the rock on the island. It rained a little more while we were in the Abby, but stopped when we were ready to leave.

Mary: we have met so many wonderful people. You would really enjoy it.

I think I have taken my normal bread intake X 10 since we have been here. I had really reduced my carbs at home. But the bread and pastries are so good here, I just can't stop. Every time we pass a patisserie I have to look. I just ate a giant chocolate macaroon that was so soft and fresh - sorry Mary.

Made it back to the hotel after a stroll for sweets and soda and it is now pouring down raining. Lucky. there is a Subway a block for our hotel and they have self serve fountain soda and ice for 2 euro. The girls there know our order. 1 large Coke and 1 hot tea. No communication gap anymore. We have been there about 6 times already.

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Photos

Coke?
Even the Coke bottles are speaking French to me.

Delicious french dinner
Pork tenderloin in mushroom sauce with that little potato cake on the side. And Dot's icky veggie polenta bake.

Market Day in Bayeux!
Giant vats of food being prepared for the market

Mont St Michel
This the island that has the abby on it, Mont St. Michel. Among the top 4 pilgrimage sites. It has a causeway that the bus drives across to get you there. Sometimes, it is a full of water.

Chris and Dot in front of Mont St Michel
It was quite a climb to the abby. No escalator or elevator. You had to climb. It felt like I was climbing the Met all over again.

Gerbil/Man wheel
2 men would get in the giant wheel and run like gerbils in order to haul stone up to the abby.

Chris in front of the man/gerbil wheel

Chris on a picturesque street
The island includes a quaint village with lots of tourist traps

Dot standing in the giant fireplace
One of many great halls. The abby has may rooms - the monks lived there, it was a prison for while, has a huge crypt

Supporting columns
At some point, the crypt collapsed. When they rebuilt, they put in LOTS of supporting columns, pretty close together. They didn't want it to collapse again.

Comments

[Marilyn]

The food looks great and the abbey is beautiful!

[Judy]

What a fantastic trip! Your pictures are wonderful! The food and pastries look delicious. Enjoyed the story about getting gas! You dummies!

[Con]

Good thing you were in shape for that!

[TKL]

Is it cold? Or are you just pretending to make us feel better in Saint Louis? Keep having a wonderful time and know the girls are having fun and miss couch time.