Forgetting how to plan a trip

I’m writing this from the Paris airport. It got late quickly last night and I didn’t have time to post about Mont Saint-Michel. I left Caen early this morning and I’m waiting for my flight to London this evening. Then on to the second leg of the vacation!

Yesterday we didn’t do much in the morning because it was gray and rainy and our plan was to go to Mont Saint-Michel in the afternoon.

Mont Saint-Michel!

Mont Saint-Michel is not easily accessible – from anywhere. The trains are scarce and we were given the choice of a train at 7am and then no return until 5pm or a train at 2pm (to arrive at 4pm) and a return at 7pm. We figured we wouldn’t want to be at Mont Saint-Michel for eight hours, so we went with the later time.

Unfortunately, we didn’t really have enough time to see everything – and the clouds rolled in pretty much as soon as we got off the bus. We also – I have no idea why since we’re definitely experienced travelers – neglected to check the hours of the abbey at Mont Saint-Michel. It closes at 6pm, which I saw when we got there, so we figured no problem. But, of course, the last entry is at 5pm. So we didn’t get to go into the abbey which was extremely disappointing. Totally our fault, but still. Frustrating.

The abbey that we didn't get to see.

And its entrance!

Anyway, Mont Saint-Michel is an abbey built on a mountain in the middle of some marshes out on the coast of northeastern France. It was first built in the 700s, though the current abbey and the tiny town surrounding it on the hills of the mount have changed over the centuries. Mont Saint-Michel is well-known because of the massive differences in high and low tide. The high tide can sweep in at something like 17 feet per second; at the highest/lowest tides the mount is either a hill in a marsh or an island in water. Pretty cool, right? (Another bummer: the tides weren’t noticeably different yesterday. That purely depends on when you go in the year/monthly lunar cycle though.)

Very high tide (example from Google)

Versus very low tide (also from Google). It looked more like this when we were there.

(Side note: a bunch of surfers just walked past me – having just arrived – in the airport. First of all, I don’t know where they think they’re going to surf or how they’re going to get those giant surfboards to wherever they’re going. Secondly, they look ridiculous because they have on flip-flops and it’s probably only 50 degrees outside)

The town of Mont Saint-Michel was pretty cool. There is a cool path you can walk around on the outside of the walls of the city and despite all the tourist shops, it’s still pretty quaint. It’s a lot like the town I visited when my family was here, Rocamadour, just in a totally different setting.

Some of the streets.

Walking along the ramparts.

I supposed it was worth going to Mont Saint-Michel because it’s something that you’re supposed to see in Normandy and it would stink if I didn’t get to go in the future and every time I’d say I’d been to Normandy, I’d have to say no when people would ask the inevitable question of, “Oh, did you go see Mont Saint-Michel?” But it wasn’t necessarily a great little trip. I’m disappointed we didn’t have more time, didn’t see the abbey, didn’t see the big tide changes, couldn’t see it lit up at night, etc (half of that is my fault, a fact I’m well aware of). I’d like to go back in the future (and stay in one of the really cool little hotels actually in the town!) and have more time to explore – and also plan to be there to see the tide changes. In all, I don’t regret going, but it was a bit disappointing. It was a lot of time and money spent on trains for something that I didn’t love. I definitely enjoyed the tour of the beaches and the Bayeux Tapestry more.

But hey – this is still a pretty amazing site!

View from the ramparts.

Another view.

The abbey at sunset, as we were leaving. The sun peaked back out again as we were getting ready to get on the bus back to the train station.

Now it’s on to England. First stop London (I think for three nights) and then to Bristol, Bath, and Oxford. I don’t know what my internet will be like since we’ll be staying with Michelle’s friends, but my goal is to keep posting! I’m excited to see Michelle for the first time in about six months!