Paris, je t'aime! Part 14: Monks Don't Know How to Sleep In

In Part 13 of the blog posts about France, we arrived safe and sound in Mont Saint-Michel (MSM), had an alfresco dinner on our dark, wet terrace, and wandered around the island before collapsing into sleep.

Us at MSM in the daylight!

It was a good thing we'd gone to bed early the night before, as the monks started ringing the abbey bells (as you saw in the last blog's pictures, the abbey isn't that far from every hotel room on the island) promptly at 7am.  If France had multiple time zones, MSM would surely be in a different one from Paris, as it's a good 5 hours west, so it was still pitch black outside when the bells began.  I looked at my phone to see it was 7am, but the bells didn't stop tolling with just 7 - oh no.  They went 10 times, 15 times, 20 times - eventually, a very confused husband popped his head up from the pillow next to me and went, "what time IS it?"  From our best guess, we figured the abbey residents were being called to Lauds, or morning prayers, but we still don't really know.

While we tried to get back to sleep, we were fully awake by this point (bells = success), so we started getting ready to wander around the island in the relative daylight (as you can see in the shot above, it was still overcast) and find some food.  Given all of the lady business I need to deal with, Chris is normally ready before I am, so he grabbed some morning shots from our terrace.

Looking up toward the abbey - 

my ears are still ringing thinking about this

You can barely see the earliest tourists

coming in on the trams in the right of this shot

We ended up eating breakfast at the St. Pierre (where we checked in the night before), as they were open and advertised a breakfast buffet.  While the food was okay, we were absolutely missing our breakfasts in the cave at Les Tournelles.

It was a pretty picturesque setting,

I'll give it that.

We wandered back down to the gate to the city to take some shots before the tourist hordes started to invade en masse.

Since the island is so small and well, an island,

everything has to be brought in,

and early morning was obviously when

all of this happened each day.

Tourists starting to trickle in...

Both of the times we were out and about in MSM, it was low tide, so although we didn't get to see it while the tide was high, we did get a good experience with the mud flats.  I, of course, took full advantage of this to freak out the husband:

Him: "I'm not coming to get you if you fall in."

Me: "I won't fall in!"

Oops, maybe a little.

Since we knew we had a five-hour drive back, plus stops for lunch and other sightseeing, we packed up our wee travel bags (made even more wee since we weren't also lugging a picnic - including a baguette and full-size bottle of wine - with us) and headed down to the actual La Vieille Auberge to check out.

Whatever.

He's lucky I didn't bring the big suitcase.

As you've seen in our shots, there are tons of tiny passageways and random staircases, but there's really one main "road" pilgrims and tourists take from the entry to MSM up to the abbey.  We hadn't really scoped it out yet, so after checking out of the hotel, we took a quick minute to wander around it and grab some shots.

This little dude barely fit

The sign for our actual hotel

As I mentioned, it's pretty steep and windy

We found a seagull!

(he's standing on that buoy)

Bye, MSM!

Maybe we'll see you in the sun sometime!

We reclaimed the Captur and headed out of town, with a quick stop at a gas station and then grocery store to allow everyone to get fuel of one type or another.

My fuel of choice.

These were good, although the roasted chicken ones were better.

Found more mud!

After a few hours on the road, we entered Le Mans, famous for the 24 hour auto race that takes place in and around the city every June.  

I think this picture is actually close to where we parked our car.

We figured Le Mans would be a good lunch spot, and sure enough, we ended up there right at lunch time.  Since it was a Monday, quite a few things were closed, but we found a great bakery-cafe chain called Paul (think a French Panera) that was open and serving delicious food.  I think I had a mini flatbread/pizza while Chris enjoyed a sandwich, but both of our pastries (a lemon tart and chocolate macaron) were outstanding.  The adorable older ladies behind the counter were also exceptionally helpful and gracious in working with our limited knowledge of the French language.

Statues and plaques around Le Mans,

celebrating the famous race

On our way out of the city, we drove right past the cathedral in town, and although we didn't stop to visit, it was quite lovely from the outside:

Part of the cathedral peeping through

on our walk to lunch

Driving through this cool tunnel

on the way out of town

Cathedral!

I see some buttressing going on!

Upon leaving Le Mans, we spent another hour and a half on the road before our next destination, Chartres.  In the next blog, we see the amazing and famous (for good reason) cathedral in Chartres, then get back to Paris in time for Monday afternoon rush hour traffic!  Hooray!

Later!

Amy