Mont Saint Michel (Spring Break Part IV)

So on Saturday morning I flew to Paris to meet up with Mom, Dad and Julie. We had rented a car and drove from Paris Northeast to a small town called Ardevon. It is right next to Mont Saint Michel, which is basically in the Atlantic Ocean. It is reached by a small causeway that connects to the town of Ardevon. Mont Saint Michele is an abbey on this outcropping in the ocean, and a really neat town sprung up around the abbey.

Sunday, we explored Mont Saint Michel. What's really cool about this place is the tides. When the tide is low, you can see the mudish-clay flats that surround the abbey, but the water comes rushing in at high tide and covers all of this. We were there at a lower-tide point, and got to walk around Mont St. Michel after exploring the town.

A lot of the little buildings in the town are timber-framed, medieval houses that are sagging. But they are awesome and it is very neat that people still live there. Since the abbey is surrounded by water, there are walls protecting it. We got to walk around the walls and got some pretty awesome views of the ocean and the northern France coastline.

I was very excited that the sun was out (we don't see much of it in Scotland), and we got to eat lunch in a restaurant that was actually on the walls of Mt. St. Michel. It was a very relaxing day.

We were staying in a little house that had a view of the abbey. The house was old (which we could only tell because of the ceilings. Dad had to duck to get into the kitchen, which he forgot on occasion and proved true the saying 'It's only funny until someone gets hurt, then it's hilarious.)

Northern France is very rural, and there was a field where sheep hung out during the day at one side of the street. The sheep lived in barns further down the street, so every morning and evening we got to see them being herded! It was awesome. First of all, sheep don't all baa the same. A few of them had really deep voices, and it was very strange. The herding dogs were adorable, and very good at their jobs. And running sheep poop. A lot. So every morning we had to watch where we stepped before getting in the car. But I don't think I ever would have seen a sheep herding like that, and it was a riot to watch.

So we didn't stay out too late on Sunday, because we were planning a trip to the Normandy beaches for the next day. That's coming up in the next post!