So this morning I got up and watched some of Essendon vs Sydney. Loving the timezone for day games here, I get up and watch footy while I make brekky!!
Then I went out, as today was the only day of the three I'm here that the bus to Mont St Michel was running. Which was a shame because Collingwood were playing at 10.40am my time, but more on that later.
I walked to the bus stop and BOY was it cold today! Very icy wind. I sat on the bus and made a friend...well, kind of. An elderly Italian man called Donato sat next to me. He spoke hardly any English but a combination of that, my broken Italian and both of our limited French led us to have on and off conversation for most of the 1.25 hour journey! He was impressed I am travelling so much by myself (at least I think he was, haha).
We arrived at the Mont St Michel carpark and walked to the shuttle. For those who don't know, Mont St Michel is an island in the Normandy region, is 247 acres in size and has a population of about 50! In recent years a lot of damage has been done to the Mont by human activity, one of those being allowing people to drive right up to it via the causeway built in 1879. So now the car park is 2.5km away and there's a free shuttle.
We arrived at the base of the Mont and I set off. I'll firstly say that overall today I was a little disappointed. The mont itself is quite impressive, but a really low tide around it has left it surrounded by horrible looking mud and tractors. I think the awful look of the mud was brought about by the "Tide of the century" they had here a couple of weeks ago. Now that that's disappeared it's much more mucky than normal. As well it was really cloudy today (just made the mud look worse!). But the main thing that disappointed me was that even though it's so heavily geared at tourists (there were so many people everywhere, mainly people who take a photo and don't actually look at anything!), there was no English in the Mont museums. At all.
I started off by walking up to the abbey and on the way saw the cute little streets, the 15th century ramparts which allowed you a nice view of the feral mud haha and a narrow alleyway called Cuckolds Alley which can't have been wider than 30-40cm! Got to the abbey and while the interior was good there was literally no information except one small sign about restoration. The only information I have is off google. The abbey was built around the 8th century and apparently used to be a prison, and a huge wheel I saw inside of it was moved by prisoners walking it around to lift goods and supplies up. Apart from that I've got nothing - sorry guys!
Then I decided to go to the history museum. The man informed me that the price for the museum was the same as a combo ticket for four museums. But I had the same issue again - no English, including a tour with a guide, even though the man on the ticket counter could clearly tell I didn't speak french!! I saw some torture instruments, a model showing a man who died from being swallowed by the surrounding mud and some weird sound and light show in the dungeon all in French (not a clue!!). I then went to a house from the time (very limited English) and then to the maritime museum (no English at all!) and finally to a sound and light show (also no English!). So overall I was feeling quite unimpressed with how things were set out here. I get the no English, but why not tell me this when I'm asking in English about the museums?!
Went and sat at a lookout to eat my lunch I brought with me, and thank god I did. Because it was so touristy everything was really expensive. It was 6 euro for a small sandwich!
I then headed off to walk the 2.5km back to the carpark. Don't get me wrong, I still had a good day today. The mont was still pretty and I'm glad I went, I just don't feel like it was set out as well as it could've been.
On the way back I found the dam. Here there was an English sign - yaaay! As mentioned before, human action has amplified sedimentation around the mont. This is due to the hydraulic movements of the river and sea around the rock being stopped. In 1969 a dam was built but while this did its job reducing flooding, it also stopped water being let back out to the mont, meaning that sediment left by the tide just stayed there and didn't wash away. The new dam does both! It regulates the water and let's the water it has held back out throughout the day to wash sediment away from the mont. I loved the dam because it had a good view point. I took a self timer here to prove to you all that I wore my pies jumper all day! I couldn't watch but decided to wear my jumper and avoid the scores all day and watch when I got 'home'.
I made a quick stop at the visitor centre near the carpark (which I wish they'd told us to do first!) and found out some info included in the blog, as well as that the figure on top of the abbey is archangel Michael.
Caught the bus back and ran from the bus stop to my apartment. I deleted all social media apps off my phone and iPad and sat down to watch Collingwood vs Brisbane. And boy am I glad I left the score as a surprise! We played so well up until we got tired, and the end was exciting because I didn't know who'd won. I cooked myself scrambled eggs with ham, Brie, mushroom and capsicum while I watched. Yummmmm.
So overall a good day (thanks pies!), but I think they need to reorganise a bit more at Mont St Michel seeing as it's such a big tourist attraction! They need to tell English speakers not to bother with some of the museums!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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