Mont St. Michelle & Normandy - Part 1

Keith had Thursday May 1 and Friday May 2 off work for Ascension Day.... 40 days after Easter. May 1 was Ascension day, and Friday was the day after ascension day, so naturally he had both days off work, which we planned to use to drive through the French countryside. We decided against a trip to Mont St. Michelle when we were on our honeymoon but thought this would be a great opportunity. From looking at the map we realized how close we would be to Omaha beach so we thought we would tack on a side trip to the beach and WWII cemetery. We dropped Bailey off at the very friendly vet Wednesday night so that we could head out bright and early on Thursday. Crossing into France was pretty fun, the border is about 20 minutes from our place, and they still have the checkpoints from pre-EU when they still had border checks although they are clearly not in use and have been overtaken by grass. This was our longest road trip so far, about 4 hours and 45 min. We both noticed that they don't really have billboards here, which is nice, nothing to detract from the beautiful countryside. They do however have these neat signs for each town that are picture representations of what you can find in that town. You'll see in some of them in the pictures.

Mont St. Michelle is by far one of the most fascinating and beautiful things that either of us has ever seen. We were both struck immediately by how picturesque it is and just overwhelmed by it's location. We really couldn't take enough photographs, despite the rain and wind. As we entered the island and started up the hill Keith and I were quickly disappointed to discover how touristy the interior is, the walkways lined with cheesy souvinier shops and resturants intending to rip you off. We continued all the way to the top only to discover that the abbey built at the top was closed. The banner hanging outside said that the abbey was open from September 1 through April 30. We missed it by one day! In the end it really didn't matter, we still had fantastic views and just enjoyed being there. Before calling it a night we drove around the local towns for a bit and discovered that they are well known for their cider, so of course we had to get a bottle to try :) On a side note, one of the things that frustrates Keith and I is that we are use to American sized drinks.... large and larger. Here they only have small and smaller. It's tough even to find glasses for your home larger than a small juice glass. We ended up buying beer glasses (the only drink they do large) for our regular drinking glasses. Thus the idea of Starbucks Grande, Vente really doesn't exist, instead you get tiny tiny little cups of coffee. Keith's regular coffee's come in these little itty bitty cups, but apparently it is very strong. Anyway Our night finished with an interesting hotel stay, loud noises and sewage smell so needless to say we were excited about heading out the next day for Omaha beach.

We'll write soon with Part II of the trip and our experience in Normandy.