On Wednesday we went to Mont-Saint-Michel, France's third most popular tourist destination (after the Tour Eiffel and the Louvre, I would imagine) and one of the places I was most excited to visit before coming to France. We were lucky--it wasn't very crowded and the weather could have been way worse.
But before we get to that, this is what I could see from my hotel room. Am I still in France??
Mont-St-Michel! It was very impressive when we first saw it from a distance because the surrounding land is so flat. It's surrounded by quicksand, which reawakened one of my strange ever-lingering-for-some-reason desires, namely, to walk in quicksand. Maybe I'm just convinced that it's totally survivable, since SuperMario, Westley, and Buttercup did it. Unfortunately, we had to stay in the bus and take the causeway.
How often do you see that?
One of the adorable little streets. We had some to explore before our tour started.
Some fun trivia: Mont-St-Michel appears on the Bayeux Tapestry, which we had just seen the day before. In the Hundred Years War, England tried to seize the island many times but was never able to. For you
Lord of the Rings fans, Mont-St-Michel was the inspiration for Minas Tirith in
Return of the King.
It was very, very windy and rained off and on but the sun was shining!
Getting higher as we climb to the top...
A view of the church from below...look at that blue sky! (Can you tell I was really excited about it?)
More ocean...
Getting higher...
Emma and me waiting to go inside.
Now we're with our awesome tour guide Catherine who has been giving tours here every day for 15 years!
Check out the gargoyles.
There's our group!
Something I actually didn't learn last semester in music 201 with Dr. Howard (loved that class): the term flamboyant gothic comes from windows like these because they look like candle flames.
In the main transept, discussing the Romanesque and Gothic architecture of the abbey.
There were originally seven arches here but the others were destroyed in a big fire.
The view from up top.
We took a little break in the sunshine. It felt wonderful!
From the entrance to the next room we went in (the refectory? something like that) it looked like there were only two windows...
But there were dozens of these guys on either side. Those tricky monks...One of the girls asked if we could sing one of the songs we had just been practicing on the bus for our Easter program, so we sang "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" and drew quite an audience. Catherine was very teary-eyed and touched and afterward started asking some of the girls questions like "How do you know all these beautiful songs?" and "Do you sing this much in your church?" We had great acoustics for our beautiful little choir. :)
I know this is hard to see, but it depicts the story behind the building of the church. St. Michael appeared to the local bishop in the 8th century and told him to build a church on yonder rock. When the bishop said no (whyever would he do that?) Michael burned a hole in his (the bishop's) skull with his (Michael's) finger. The next guy in line figured he'd better build the church. Good story, huh?
This is downstairs in part of the structure that was built around the rock to support the church. These huge columns were built around the original skinnier ones to add support when part of it collapsed a few centuries after construction. If I remember right...I asked Catherine about that.
Part of our singing circle--we sang for quite a while in this room. It was a neat experience to sing in this place where so many monks and nuns have been singing for centuries. Catherine loved it and didn't want us to stop! Fortunately she didn't have a group after us so we had all the time in the world. As you can see, it was wicked dark down there.
Back upstairs--this is an old elevator they used to bring stuff up to prisoners when the place was turned into a prison during the French Revolution (surprise surprise). Victor Hugo described the tide at Mont-St-Michel as having the speed of a galloping horse. According to Wikipedia, it comes in at one meter per second. That's pretty fast! He was one of the people who campaigned for the site to be restored as a national treasure. The prison was finally closed in 1863 and declared a national monument in 1874. Thanks again, Victor!
It was a beautiful view.
This is the only room with fireplaces, because it's the scriptotorium where the monks would write and copy texts and thus needed light and heat to help the ink dry. (She said this particular room was famous because something cool happened there...don't remember what.) Normally, it would appear they led very, very simple (and cold) lifestyles, with only two outfits per year. One for summer, one for winter. I need more variation in my wardrobe. :) This was the end of the tour, but she invited anyone who wanted to follow her to come have free cookie samples. Naturally, we all went. On the way, she started asking Mike about BYU because she had given tours to BYU kids before, our program here, the time he's spent in France...
The gravesite of the famous Poulards. I don't know who they are or why they're famous, but there's a famous restaurant called La Mère Poulard..
And a gift shop where they sell, among many other things, their very yummy, expensive cookies which we got to sample. Mmmm! Outside the shop, we thanked Catherine again, sang for her one more time, gave her a hymn book and a Book of Mormon, and she told us it was a day she would never forget, after her 15 years of tours. It was pretty precious, Dad. :)
It's good that we had exploring time before, since our one-hour tour lasted two. I used our last few minutes to peek in the back door of the restaurant where you can see the chefs at work (not to mention warm up by the fire). This place goes back to 1879 and has a wall full of autographs from famous people who ate there like Ernest Hemingway and Yves Saint-Laurent. They're famous for their omelettes made in bright copper pots like these and cooked over open fires.
This guy was such a showoff. He was just whisking eggs. Anyone can do that. Honestly.
One last shot before we left...much prettier than the first one. All-in-all, a great day (although it wasn't over yet). We saw a really cool, historic, beautiful place, proved the bad weather predictions wrong, and converted our tour guide. It's all in a day's work.
I spent most of my time at the town market at this stall of brain-teaser type puzzles and games, where the vendor was only too thrilled to practice his English and show us how the different games worked. I thought of all my brothers. :)
Jeff, of course, had to stand here until he figured out how to get the ball on the string out of the wooden frame. I like trying these kinds of thing but I'm lucky if I can actually solve them.
He finally did it!
Wooden shoes!
Tulips, my favorite! Maybe spring really is coming...
I picked out my wedding ring. I've always had a thing for pearls, but this one caught my eye. The one on the right. It's only 2240 euros. (I know it's blurry--just had to remember that I found it in Dinan.)
Us in front of an adorable half-timbered house, Bro. Welch in the background, camera at the ready.
Narrow streets...they're adorable too!
I saw this and thought of you, Doris.
The group waiting for the bus...
The tapestry.
It was nice to see some green when everything's still so not green.
A typical French garden--very well laid-out, geometrical, and the best-manicured shrubs you ever saw.
Ah, what symmetry! My mathy roommate Natalie would love this. :)
S for spikes.
S for Sarah. Wow, she's fierce!
More of Angers.
The cathedral. Stay tuned for more!
