Whilst travelling, there is often the danger that
reality may not live up to a mystical image of a place unvisited. Fortunately, the
early winter morning view across polders and tide flats reinforced that image
of Mont St Michel for us. What you don’t see in the photograph is the rather prosaic
mega-carpark behind us.
If you are able to blinker out the burger joints and
tat touting shops, as you ascend the Grand Rue to the gates of the abbey, the
mystique remains. Once inside the abbey, reality exceeds the imaginings. It is really
quite exquisite. An appreciation of the engineering involved in the structure
and the views across the bay and the flat hinterlands makes it even more so.
We descended a back way from the abbey, avoiding the
busloads of high speed package tours. Feeling pleased with ourselves for having
arrived so early, we headed west to St Malo for a gorgeous gallete and cider
lunch and a stroll around the ramparts. Living in landlocked Luxembourg, we
found the sea views and atmosphere quite intriguing.
Back to our B&B in Beauvoir for a post prandial
and then dinner at the only restaurant in town. I had an excellent plate of
moules marinieres and chips complemented by a nice bottle of Sancerre. I had
wanted to get some night photos of Mont St Michel, but after our dinner we did
not feel like traipsing the couple of kilometres out to the causeway, so I had
to make do with the slightly “artistic“ shot
below.
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