St. Malo, Mont Saint Michel, And One Certain Way To Piss Me Off

Editor's Note: I am a day behind - the internet sucks, so what else is new.  

Today we arrived in France.  Nous sommes en France.  And the sunrise was lovely.

We're anchored in this beautiful harbor, with perfect little French houses and boats dotting the land- and seascape.  It actually smells French.  I'm not sure what that means, but it's true.

Our excursion today takes us to Mont Saint Michel - that beautiful island monastery built between the 8th and the 11th centuries.  It is an icon. 

Back in the 8th century, Saint Aubert had a dream that Saint Michael spoke to him and asked him to build a temple in his name.  Of course, Aubert thought it must have been a bad mussel that gave him such a crazy dream.  But then, the next night, he had the same dream, only this time Aubert woke up when Saint Michael poked him in the head as he again insisted a temple be built in his name.

Here is the sculpture depicting Aubert's dream

So, sure enough a temple was built - actually an Abbey.  Then the monastery, then the village.

 

Great grotesques (grotesques do not have waterspouts like gargoyles)  And I'm reminded that all of France is mourning losses at Notre Dame...and to be at this beautiful place only deepens our sympathies.

Such perfect weather.

beautiful cloister

an ancient Pieta

You know how I love ceilings ...

...and floors.

The windows were spectacular.

You can see that the tide is out.  When it's in - especially in the rainy season, the whole place is swamped - even the bridge to get to the island.

So, the ship is anchored in Saint Malo, but we really didn't have time to visit the city before the excursion.  We planned to be back from Mont Saint Michel by 2:30 and hit the city center for a couple of hours before reboarding the ship.  Instead there was an idiot woman on our tour bus that decided to attend mass at the church rather than staying with the group.  We were to be back on the bus at 1:45, but she got lost and our guide had to go find her.  She finally got back on the bus at 2:15!!!!  2:15!!!

Look - there's only one way up and one way down from the monastery.  How the hell did she get lost???  She was cutting into our drinking time!!!  We.  Were.  Pissed. 

 I wanted to find her cabin on the ship and toilet paper it.  Or maybe throw her overboard.  If she's on any other of our excursions, you can bet she'll come up missing.

I felt a little better after I saw these beautiful strawberries in the market in town.

Tomorrow I'll post about our visit to the D-Day landing beaches and our stop in South Hampton.