L'aventurier contre tout guerrier

I have no idea who Bob Morane is, but this almost 30 year old gem popped up on Direct Star this morning and was too good not to share. Right, so this post will be dedicated to last weekend's visit to Mont Saint-Michel. Once again Sylviane and Jean-François were gracious enough to take Qunxing and I to a place we wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. We found out along the way that we really are especially lucky because this is the last year that Sylvaine will be in charge of the assistant at Decrétot and may even be the last year that the lycée has an assistant (I guess they save the best for last).

Before the Mont, however, we made a pit stop in Villedieu les Poêles, a town famous for its copper goods and its bell foundry. After stocking up with supplies (fresh pain and jambon, apple gateau, and rillette )for our picnic later in the day, we headed to the Cornille-Havard bell foundry; one of the remaining three in France, from an original +300. At first I thought that it would be kind of dumb, especially since I was anxious to get to Mont Saint-Michel, but it was actually really interesting to see how they make these massive (and ornate) bells.

The floor is made of wood so that if the bell falls while it's being moved it won't break.

They put these on the bells before they are cast to create all the different emblems.

Around noon we left for Mont Saint-Michel, but stopped along the way for a picnic. We had a full spread of bread, cheese, fresh ham, rillette (more addicting than Cheez-its and pistachios), sausage, gherkins, homemade potato and green bean salad, and apple cake. All of this in the middle of a field next to a pasture of sheep with the Mont in the distance.

If you look closely you'll notice that some of the grass has a grayish hue, that's because the sea comes all that way up. Just to give you an idea of how far away that is, Mont Saint-Michel is surrounded by it in the distance.

Once our stomachs were full, we continued on to the Mont, where already the lots were almost full and the pedestrian path was crowded with visitors. Thanks to my Pass d'Education I didn't have to pay to get in, and I'm especially glad I didn't pay because our guide was awful. After the first room, I just stopped listening to him because you couldn't understand a word he was saying. He was more or less just talking into his scarf and had absolutely no enthusiasm for being a tour guide. I didn't feel so bad though, because even Sylviane gave up on him and as we went from room to room, we just waited for Jean-François to re-articulate what the guide couldn't.

The cloister.

Tour heading out while it's still low tide - watch out for quicksand!

The only drawback of the day was the fact that it was just so crowded. I can't even imagine what it must be like in the summer, at the height of the tourist season. Also, I really would have liked to have seen it at high tide, but it was at 11.00 PM, so there was no way that was going to happen. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a nicer day.