After a fabulous breakfast at our B&B, a debacle finding and then paying for gas (nobody was working at the booth to take our cash and they didn't accept our non-French credit cards! Thankfully, after several failed attempts at communicating our problem, a group of helpful teens on motorcycles drove us to a gas station that did take our money!), we drove several hours to Mont St Michel.
Mont St Michel is a medieval tidal island fortress barely off the coast of Normandy with a beautiful abbey on top of the pyramidal shaped land. When the tide comes in the mont is surrounded by water, but when the tide is out the island is accessible. Of course, there is a bridge there for our use today!
Coolest place EVER!
In fact, the head designer on the Disney movie Tangled is French and patterned the royal castle and town on this magical place (with some elements drawn from Chenonceau as well!)
See it?
(both pictures obviously not taken by me!)
We loved walking up the spiraling cobblestone streets to the working abbey - there were many shops, restaurants, and even hotels!
The tide was out when we arrived and had just come in as we were leaving.
This wheel was used to bring supplies up from the bottom of the mont - ingenious!
There were many warning signs discouraging people from walking on the sand, but we saw several people down there nonetheless. I don't know about you, but the threat of quicksand is enough to keep me away!
I love this man!
We were in awe of the difficulty of the construction of this 11th century abbey. I would love to know how on earth they managed to build it!
Watching the tide slowly come in...
Our only regret is not allotting more time on the island!
Our next B&B was located just a few kilometers from the Mont, Le Clois de Sainte Gilles, and it was so charming!
Behind me you can barely make out the Mont - swoon!
The couple who owned this property renovated it from the ground up and designed and cultivated these gorgeous gardens. It took them six years! She showed me the pictures from their renovations and I am amazed at the transformation. They started with a crumbling building and a weed field and they created this!
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