May 14, 2019: Mont-Saint-Michel and Saint Malo
R
Our tour director, Chantal, is from Normandy and she wanted us to know that Mont-Saint-Michel is in Normandy, not Brittany as some people profess! We assured her we would remember that. She spent a little time telling us about her childhood here, which surprisingly was a bit austere given when she was born (circa 1950). There was no running water, no indoor toilets, baths once a week in a bucket, cooking on wood stoves, 1 kilometer walk to/from school, etc. Furthermore, her parents left her to be raised by neighbors from the age of 5 (?) until 11 because they had to move to Paris for jobs.
I should comment that the land in Normandy is green and heavily forested with manicured farm fields dotting the landscape. This is agricultural country and it is visually pretty.
Mont-Saint-Michel is an island about 1 kilometer off the coast of Normandy at the mouth of Couesnon River. The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times. Since the 8th century AD it has been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. About 50 people currently live on the island, including a small number of monks and nuns. The structural composition of the town exemplifies the feudal society that constructed it: on top, God as reflected in the abbey and monastery; below, the great halls for visiting pilgrims, then stores and housing; and at the bottom, outside the walls, houses for local fishermen and farmers.
In the past you could walk to the island but only at low tide. You had to be very careful as there are patches of quicksand in places! Also the tides in this area are huge; they can be as large as 46 feet. Since 2012 there has been a more permanent roadway built and a shuttle service established to take you from the mainland to the island. You can also still walk the 1.6 miles on the roadway during virtually all tide conditions to get to the site. Because of time constraints we rode on the shuttle.
From a distance the buildings on Mont-Saint-Michel do not look all that large but as you get to the base of the island they suddenly looks pretty enormous. It is one of those “ how in the heck did they build this thing back in Medieval times”? What was even more surprising was the number of steps we had to climb to get to the monastery and abbey at the top of the hill. My iPhone said we climbed the equivalent of 23 stories. The amount of stone work in the buildings is astounding. How they got it there and built the massive multi-storied structures is even more puzzling to me. It was a major construction job which obviously took centuries and thousands of workers to accomplish.
We toured the various levels of the monastery and abbey, seeing where they prayed, worked and lived. Afterwards we had some spare time to grab a quick bite to eat and shop. Surprisingly we have not seen much shopping, certainly no where near what we have experienced on other trips. There have been no stops at rug shops or jewelry stores on this trip! What was more surprising was that there was no real artwork for sale, only postcards. We thought Rouen, Normandy or Mont-Saint-Michel would be an obvious place for artists to ply their works.
From Mont-Saint-Michel we proceeded to our final destination of the day, Saint Malo, a lovely walled seaport town with a very old fort. It has a population of about 46,000 but swells to 200,000 during the summer months. Saint Malo was known as the base for pirates who roamed the area. Its most famous pirate was Jacques Cartier, who is credited with discovering Canada. His statue graces the waterfront. We walked along the fort walls where our local guide told us stories about the history of the area and its inhabitants. As we worked our way through the old section of the town Chantal treated us to yet another “flourish(i.e. snack)” which is called a Kouignette pastry, which was awesome! It resembled baklava but without the nuts. I could have eaten several.
Our hotel for the night was nearby on the waterfront. There was another optional dinner tonight at a locally owned restaurant (a contre Courant) a small nearby fishing village of Cancale. As is our normal custom we signed up for it as did most of our travel companions as the food is usually much better than that offered in a hotel. Furthermore we were offered several choices of starters and main dishes that were intriguing and specialties of the area. The village was idyllic and the restaurant was packed with locals and probably other tourists like us. We were glad we chose to partake in the optional tour.
Back at Saint Malo for a quick walk along the beach to take a sunset photo (or 3, or maybe it was 6- I do tend to go overboard when taking sunrise or sunset photos) before calling it a night.
