el-granada.com - The Ketchums in France - Tuesday July 3, 2007 Day 7

France 2007

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Monday July 2,2007
Day 6 - Paris to Normandy

Tuesday July 3, 2007
Day 7 - Normandy to Mont St Michel

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Wednesday July 4, 2007
Day 8 - Mont St Michel to Amboise

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at Les Mas Normand, packed, and left. Our hosts told us they are planning to add more rooms, and that business had picked up considerably after they’d been listed in Rick Steves. They had 3 rooms total – we never saw the other party taking the other 2 rooms. It cleared off as we got to the Long Guns – the only four German guns left intact from the war. These guns were responsible for much of the shelling of the D-Day landing craft. It was a beautiful sunlight morning with relatively few tourists.

CJ and Robby with one of the four long guns

We then went to the American Cemetery, and it poured rain as we toured the museum, then stopped before we left the building. The security there was more thorough than many airports, as least pre-9/11 – every bag opened and hand checked carefully. The Cemetery overlooks Omaha beach – the tide was quite high, and we didn’t see anything other than a narrow strip of sand, so we didn’t hike down to it. The kids wandered among the graves for perhaps 20 or 30 minutes. We wondered how they could be entertaining themselves for so long - they were trying to find the highest ranking officers.

Omaha Beach from the American Cemetary

American Cemetary - Robby is walking away on the right

American Cemetary

We then went to Pont du Hoc, which was full of craters and ruins of bunkers. Pont du Hoc is where the US Army Rangers climbed the cliff with ladders and ropes to take out a large gun that ironically wasn't even being used during the invasion. The Ranger’s Dagger is now closed off behind barbed wire, presumably because the cliffs are unstable. Robby slipped and fell into a grass crater – I missed it, but was told it was quite amusing.

CJ's picture of Pont du Hoc
Ranger's Dagger on the far left.

Pont du Hoc

Pont du Hoc - the Ranger's Dagger

We then went to Coutances – Richard told us there was a nice Cathedral that we should see if we missed Chartres, or maybe even if we did see it. We didn’t, and Coutances was more or less on the way to Mt St Michel. The Cathedral was impressive. We grabbed a bite to eat – sandwhiches and the like. This town was completely off the tourist map.

Coutances

We then headed to the coast, since Richard told us the drive down the coast overlooking Mont St Michel was nice. The tide was way out – it almost appeared we could drive across the bay to Mont St Michel. Unfortunately the road was very slow and didn’t let you see the coast most of the time. Eventually we go to Mont St Michel, parked, found our Hotel Le Mouton Blanc, checked in, then went back to the mainland for dinner. Mont St Michel was as stunning as I'd hoped. I remember seeing pictures of it when I was a child, and had always wondered in amazement at it. I originally hadn't planned on seeing it on this trip since it is out of the way, but finally realized that it was worth the effort and rearranged the trip accordingly.

Le Mouton Blanc - the bed. Robby's had a long day.

Le Mouton Blanc - the loft

I assumed, wrongly, that prices would be more reasonable off the island. We should have stayed on the island where we would have had atmosphere for dinner, since we paid for it anyway. Kathy and I got our first ‘menu’ – local cooked meats, I don’t recall what she got, but it was reasonably good. We went back to Mont St Michel, then headed up to the Abbey for an evening tour. By this time the wind had picked up considerably – there was no wind deep in the canyons of the Grand Rue (the only street) on Mt St Michel, but outside the walls and up on the top the wind must have been at least a steady 30 mph with higher gusts.

The bottom of Le Grand Rue - the only street on Mont St Michel. This picture taken from the ramparts.

Our hotel, Le Mouton Blanc

We watched the tide come in – it was quite amazing. Sands quickly disappeared as water flooded all the way up to the parking lot. The lots themselves were not supposed to flood that evening, but I was quite glad I had moved the car to the causeway lot, which is reserved for hotel guests. The Abbey tour was quite confusing at first, since Rick Steve’s books starts at the West Terrace, and the Abbey tour now starts at the Guests’ Hall. By the Ossuary we figured it out, then backtracked to make sense of it all. A cellist was playing in the Guest’s Hall, and a harpsichord was playing in the Merveille. The lighting and music were interesting. Certain rooms, such as the Abbey Church, would have been better in daylight. Overall, though, the tour is much better a) without all the daytime crowds and b) with the music.

Tide has covered the bus parking lot and washed up the river

The Abbey at dusk, after our tour, from the northeast raparts.

We then walked down the ramparts and back to our hotel room, as CJ and I waited for it to get dark so we could take night pictures of the island. Once it finally got dark and we got ready to leave the hotel it started pouring. I almost decided not to go out, but thought we could set up under the hatchback of the station wagon. A few minutes later it stopped raining entirely and we ventured out… into the wind. It took considerable effort to hold down the tripod with enough force that it didn’t shake in the wind. I took perhaps a dozen pictures, and CJ took around 20 or 25 – most on his own, and some with the tripod. We then headed back up to the room and uploaded the pictures onto the computer – I was determined to head back out again if necessary to get a good picture. All the pictures he took without the tripod were quite blurry. I was a little dissatisfied with the quality of my pictures, but after looking at them all I decided that was the best the camera was going to do under the conditions and there was no point in going back outside. Without the tripod it would have been quite hopeless.

Prev
Monday July 2,2007
Day 6 - Paris to Normandy

Tuesday July 3, 2007
Day 7 - Normandy to Mont St Michel

Next
Wednesday July 4, 2007
Day 8 - Mont St Michel to Amboise