3 June 2015
Actually left SLC on June 2nd and arrived Paris CD airport June 3rd. Rough flight due to "high blood sugars", but survived. Spent the afternoon catching up on sleep from the all night party of flying. Met our tour director , Anne, became oriented for our next 3-4 days of travel.
At the airport, met up with my cousin...Thornock, from the Paris Idaho area. Had to come halfway across the world to Paris France to meet a cousin. Go figure! Still trying to determine exactly how we are related.
4 June, 2015
Lunch was la Picoterie, famous for their crepes. A seafood omelet for me and Cheryl had a omelet then dessert was a hot chocolate sauce crepe with vanilla ice cream. MMM.....!
All of this occurred at a table for two on the front walk of the cafe.
Next was the four, yes four hour bus ride to Saint Malo along the sea. Finished our day with dinner and a short walk along the sea shore.
This afternoon, we visited first the small village of Saint Suliac. Reminded Cheryl and I of the villages in the Cotswolds in England. Just a fun, beautiful, quaint village that seems to be unaffected by the world about it.
5 June 2015
Woke up to gull cries & doves cooing. After breakfast, we rode to Saint Malo 10 minutes from where we are staying. St. Malo inner city is surrounded by a fortress wall. At one time St Malo controlled the sea routes and claimed to be an independent country from Brittany and France. Visited the original structure home of a wealth corsairs. It survived with no damage the bombings of WWII. A tour of the city brought a number of different perspectives and a better understanding of the early sea routes and privateering that occurred and why.
Lunch was some incredible buck wheat crepes stuffed with ham, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms. Dessert was a sweet crepe stuffed with chocolate.
After St. Suliac, we traveled to the town of Dinan a medieval town that was part of the resistance during WWII and keep the Germans from crossing the Rancine River. Needless to say, we were exhausted after walking three villages today. Ate a dinner of Oysters ( okay Cheryl didn't have any Oysters), a club sandwich, and topped it off with desert. When they brought out a Banana Split for Cheryl and one for me...well everyone in the restaurant paid attention at the two large goblets that were twelve inches in height and placed in front of Cheryl and I. We are just training up for attacking the stairs of Mont St. Michel.
We arrived at Mont St Michel and the awesome sight only made one wonder if they could climb the mountain straight up. Remember St Michel's is on a small island of rock and goes from sea level to 250 feet. The anticipation of the climb was greater than the reality. We have heard all types of guesses of how many steps to the top. First, the first incline begins in the village and is a slope street of 12% grade for several 1000 feet. Second no one can count accurately the number of stairs - up while ascending/descending the mount. Exhaustion, distraction of the surroundings, lack of oxygen due to elevation gain, or just not enough fingers & toes prevents anyone from calculating the number of stairs required to reach the top. Even our tour guide informed us that there is always one more stair to climb wherever you go on the site.
Hence, when the tour guide informed us that we were 1/2 way to the top, it came as a surprise that hey this isn't so bad. Now Cheryl may have a different story - but her "Rocky" dance of victory at the top was priceless.
6 June 2015
Anniversary of D-Day but it will have to wait til tomorrow before we get there. Today is our quest to go where no man (at least Cheryl & I) as gone before and that will be the Mont St. Michel chapel and the supposedly 900 steps up to the chapel.
Highly recommend that anyone who can climb a few stairs and not be afraid of heights visit and enjoy the beauty of Mont St. Michel.
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