Le Mont St. Michel

le 23- 25 septembre: vendredi, samdi, dimanche.

This weekend a group of 8 of us took a long voyage across the country (so weird to say that!) to visit le Mont St. Michel in the Normandy region of France. It was GORGEOUS. To begin or trip we had to leave our house at 5:30 am on Friday to catch our 6:27 train. We had so many trains to catch! Luckily we had a 3 hour break in Paris so we used that time to enjoy a walk around the city...and switch train stations according to our tickets. We finally arrived around 4:30 PM which makes sense because we went to the opposite end of the country. Still so weird to me, we can’t really do that in the US, its strange to cross the country for the weekend! Anyway, we went to this cute little hostle that was actually more like a bed and breakfast. It was run by this adorable British couple that were nice enough to pick us up from and drop us off at the train station and Mont St. Michel. Without their help we would have had to spend so much more money to get places! Thank you British couple and thank you Dano for finding this adorable place! The hostel was located in a tiny town with barely any businesses. As far as we knew, there was only the bar across the road and two restaurants up the hill a ways. The rest, was green green green beautiful farm land. There were fluffy sheep sitting in the tall grass: they almost looked like clouds in a green sky! Horses too! And apple trees and corn fields! Oh it was so pretty!

Friday night we went to the Oystercatcher bar, run by another British guy who was hilarious! I had curry and chips (fries) and it made me so happy to have spiced foods! They dont seem to put much seasoning or spices on food in France.  We all talked and laughed about the 90’s and embarrassing trends we were glad to have been too young to participate in! That night we stayed up in our 6 person room and laughed even more. Laughing really is the best exercise :)

Saturday was the day that we visited the Mont St. Michel! Two of the girls in our group rode bikes there from the hostel while the rest of us were driven. Because the country is so flat we could see the Mont St. Michel from a distance the whole way which definitely made it more exciting. It was almost unreal to see little villages then a giant regal mountain topped with beautiful gothic architecture out in the ocean. Definitely a sight to see! We asked the driver to drop us off a ways away so we could walk up to the historical site and let the anticipation brew a bit more. I'm glad we did that because it really was a fun walk. Once we arrived we wandered around the shops that line the single path that spirals up the mountain to the entrance of the abbey at the top. Luckily, our student ID cards came in handy and we got into the abbey for free! I guess i'm paying loads for college for something! The view from anywhere on the mountain was beautiful so we spent most of the day just standing and admiring what there was to see. But when the day started coming to an end, we had to find a good look out spot to watch the famous coming-in of the tides. Apparently we came on a bad day when the tide didn't come rushing in like it normally does. However, it did come in and people who refused to leave the beaches surrounding the mountain kind of got stuck out on sand bars and the police had to go out and get them! That night was basically a repeat of the night before only with more laughing :)

Sunday was a day of traveling, but I really enjoyed it. I did a lot of writing, reading, and music listening in addition to soaking in the scenery that the train passed by. I love traveling, as in I love the actual action of being in motion. Of course I love the end result of being in a new place, too, but being in motion puts me in a different state of mind and I can think much more clearly. This is probably why I have an urge to drive whenever I have some thinking to do!


Overall: GREAT weekend. I highly recommend visiting the Mont St. Michel if you're ever in France!