Paris and the Heart of France
Day 7 - Pilgrimage to Mont St-Michel
After an early morning walk around Amboise and breakfast at the hotel, with a chocolate croissant, of course, we walked a couple of blocks to the bus and set off for Mont St-Michel.
We stopped for lunch (on our own) in Fougères, which is home to a massive 12th-century walled fortress with moats.
Our guide led us from the parking lot around the massive fortress walls, through one of the gates and up to the main plaza area. We ate inside Café l'Estaminettes, partly because of the rain, and partly because we always get quicker service when we sit inside. My wife had a croque madame, and I had my typical ham and cheese sandwich. Food was decent, reasonable, and perhaps because we got there early, or the waitress liked us, we got done relatively quickly. We walked up the hill a bit, and explored some of the public wall areas before going back to the bus. While the weather was dreary, c'est la vie, this picturesque town is one I would enjoy exploring more.
We continued on to one of the finest jewels of France, if not all of Europe, the island village and abbey of Mont St-Michel. We arrived mid-late afternoon, which meant many people were leaving or had already left. We checked in to our hotel, Auberge Saint-Pierre and dropped off our overnight bags since our suitcases stayed in the bus. Our room was on the top floor of Hôtel Restaurant La Croix Blanche, which allowed us to walk out of through the restaurant right on to the outer wall.
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We had some free time, so I wandered off to take pictures. I headed back along the bridge and causeway and out into the pasture looking for an interesting foreground. Apparently the tide had been quite high just prior to us arriving and much of the area was muddy. Unfortunately while we were there, high tide occurred at around 2 or 3 a.m., so I wasn't able to photograph much water around the island. C'est la vie.
Before dinner our tour group gathered on the wall to have a champagne toast and then we headed to restaurant La Croix Blanche for our included dinner.
