Mont St. Michel: had a beautiful and problem free drive to Mont St. Michel (PTL) and before getting on the causeway, even stopped by the supermarche to pick up some fruit. Yes, we notice that people here do not seem to eat much fruit or vegetables and our systems are feeling all the rich food. Got parked and realized that hauling our big luggage up the wooden ramps/cobblestone to the hotel inside the town would not be wise, so we impromptu packed our knapsacks with a change of clothes for the night.
Checked into Hotel Du Guesclin (goo-clean) at the resto-bar on the main level (!) and headed out to tour the famous Abbey. Rick Steves wrote that it was a good 20 minute uphill hike to the entrance, but we champed it up in 10 minutes - fast paced, panting and sweating. Eat your heart out Rick Steves ; ) We paid for our tickets and audio-guide and started our tour. I think the whole thing was only supposed to take about 1.5 hours, but it took us 2.5 hours....mostly, okay, just because of Pete's picture taking. Ahem. I am starting to see a theme in our pictures. In Pete's camera: things and me in scenes, in my camera: Pete taking pictures of things and of me in scenes. After a great afternoon spent touring the Abbey, it was 6 pm and time for dinner. We checked out the menus displayed on the main street and settled on Le Mouton Blanc just beside our hotel. I went with a seafood theme and Pete tried the local specialties, pouffy Normandie omelet and mutton. Apparently, the plants near here grow in salt water, and so the lambs that eat these plants end up with a slightly salted flavour.
After dinner, we walked up the ramparts to check out the views and to see what the town's lookout looked like. Then just before sunset (at 10 pm no less!), we headed down the causeway to take some tripod shots of the Abbey and the island. We even got to take some with our Canucks gear - go Canucks go!