Mont Saint Michel

The Mont Saint Michel is a tidal island in the middle of the mouth of the Couesnon river, a huge estuary on the west coast of Normandy. More specifically, the Mont is a huge granite rock in the middle of a huge expanse of wet sand surrounded by salt marshes. Historically, when the tide was in, the Mont was pretty much an island, though connected to the mainland by a causeway. In recent years the estuary has silted up, and today it's more like a island in a sea of wet sand with little rivers of saltwater running everywhere. There's been a monastery on this island since the 700s, and a small town built up around it. At some point in the middle ages, a defensive wall and towers were built around the town and monastery, and now there's a fairly whimsical looking little fortress town in the middle of the bay, complete with a pointy spire and everything.

on the causeway out to the Mont

mom and me on the causeway

reba liked this one

We got here in the afternoon, checked into our hotel, and headed up to the Abbey, which is pretty breathtaking, not to mention damn windy. Those monks must have frozen their silent asses off up there. Everything on the mont is a hike up a lot of stairs, so we were a bit sweaty by the time we reached the top. The place is pretty grim, though its not clear if this is due to the monks' austerity or a by product of it's final pre-touristic role as a prison.

view of the salt marshes and mud flats from the abbey

That night, we ate at the Mere Poulard, a restaurant started in the late 19th century, and specializing in serving huge omelets. The place is famous for having had a lot of famous visitors... all sorts of royalty, movie stars, authors, French celebs I've never heard of, etc. There are autographed pictures of all these folks cramming the walls. My favorites are Omar Bradly and Ernest Hemingway. Apparently Hemingway hung out there a bunch while he was a war correspondent in the summer of 1944. The last time I ate there, in 2002, the food was just OK. I noticed that in 2003, They retained a top line French chef, who has reputedly overhauled their menu in an effort to bring the caliber of the food up to match the restaurant's fame. The meal was fine, better than before, but not as good as the last night we ate in Honfleur, and not as good as the place we ate at two days later in St Saturnine les Apt. Whatever, it's a cozy little joint out in the middle of the bay, and it's a cool place to take your wife and mom for dinner on a tour of France. Plus, I love to think of all those officers and generals cramming this place along with Hemingway back in 1944, it's must have been pretty cool back then.

dinner at the Mere Poulard

The next day we had to get to Paris and then down to Avignon and out to St Saturnine, so we left by 6AM. Brutal!

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