Monte Michel

Day 11
Mont Saint Michel

Saturday morning after our breakfast of French pastries we got back in the car to drive to Mont Saint Michel. The drive was very green and pretty. As we got close, you could see this gigantic building in the skyline. There was nothing else around it. It took us awhile to travel the roads to actually get to this island. We went through several small French cities. Mont Saint Michel is actually an island, but then it isn't an island when it is low tide. The water goes way out when it is low tide. We would have to wait several hours until high tide so we didn't see it as an island. People still live and work here.

This is what you see as you approach the island.

Here you see homes and shops.

As you can imagine there were tons of steps. It wasn't too stroller friendly.

Wayne, Tim, Marisa and I climbed the stairs to the top.

It is still a working church. There was a service going on when we reached the top. Because the priest and nuns (I don't know if that is what they are called) were so still I thought they were models, but then the models stood up.

This is a view of the channel from the top. Those tiny little dots are people. As I mention before, the water was at low tide.

This is the court area at the top.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time here because we wanted to get back to Paris before it got dark. Our drive back was pleasant and we weren't have any trouble following the roads to get to Paris. That is until we were in the city. The GPS was working, but it was recalculating when we weren't going the way it wanted us to go. One of the tunnels was under construction. The GPS kept taking us back to the tunnel. Thank goodness for Tim and his maps. I wouldn't really say we were lost but it did take us a long time getting to where we wanted to go when we were so close to our original destination. It allowed us to see more of the city then we would have seen. Wayne drove around the Arc de Triomphe. Because there are no street lines he got to dodge the other cars. We finally arrived in the part of the city where the train station is. Pretty scary part of the city. The guys were going to drop the girls off at the hotel, but changed their minds when they saw the parking entrance. It was an interesting experience getting the car parked and our luggage up to the street. We finally made it. Only the girls weren't too excited about the looks of the hotel. There was only room for two people in the elevator. The room was really a dump. It is a good thing that Tanya can tolerate her in-laws because it was very close quarters.

We really didn't want to spend more time than we had to in this tiny little room, so off we went to the underground, back to the part of the city we knew and felt comfortable in. We wanted to have one more crepe before we headed back to London. We found a place right by the river then we stood on the bridge and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle. What a wonderful way to leave Paris.