Before leaving Ducey we walked around this beautiful town. It received a three-flower award from the French Horticultural Society for its use of flowers in public places.
| Bridge crossing the river behind our hotel. | |
| The Montgomery mansion that is now a public park. | |
We left for Mont-St-Michel taking the scenic route along the Baie du Mont St-Michel. A few miles from Ducey we noticed a red light on the dashboard of the car. The manual was a generic Renault manual so it wasn't clear what was wrong, but all of these lights had "service imediately" attached in bold letters. We stopped at a service station in Pontaubault. The owner lifted the hood with a very serious look on his face. Lots of "oh, la las" were followed by a big grin as he lifted and dropped the emergency brake handle. It had been up slightly. With it down and the red light off, we continued on happily to our destination.
Mont-St-Michel is an island just off the coast. It has been a site of pilgrimage since the sixth century. In the seventh century, the Bishop of nearby Avranches had a retreat built on the island. I had a poster of a painting of Mont-St-Michel over my desk the whole time I was in graduate school, so I had wanted to see it for a long time. The church on top of the mountain was almost completed by the 12th century in the Romanesque style. The chancel collapsed in the 15th century, so that part of the church was rebuilt in the Flamboyant Gothic style. The island isn't really an island. It is on a tidal mud flat that gets flooded at high tide twice a day. At low tide you can walk out to the island, but there are places where there is quicksand. The tide had just receeded from the parking lot we were in, and the tide would flood it again at 8 that evening.
| The town and church are impressive no matter how many pictures you have seen. |  |
| The church is surrounded by houses (most of which are now shops). Here you can see the mud flats in the background. |  |
| The main church isn't the only church on the island. Here the local priest talks to a parishioner while the crowds pass by. |  |
| One of the high points of the main church for me is the cloister archade which was used as a walkway by the priests to move between the buildings. It was also a place for contemplation and prayer. |  |
On the way out of Mt St-Michel, we found a crêperie, "La Vielle Auberge," where we had crêpes with cheese, ham, egg and other fillings. Jan and I also had desert crêpes with an apple filling.
Bayeux is famous for its tapestry that depicts the events leading to the victory of William the Conqueror over Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. After this battle much of Britain was under the control of the Dukes of Normandy. The complete Bayeux Tapestry with descriptive text is available at this remarkable site. A portion of the tapestry which is over 220 feet long is shown below. The museum that holds the tapestry, has many interpretive guides, but if you were to spend the time needed to understand all that was in the various movies and annotated reproductions, you would have to buy a three-day pass. After the three days, you would still not be able to view the entire tapestry without being puzzeled.
Late in the afternoon we headed for Honfleur without much hope of reaching it. By the time we bypassed Caen (the road construction wasn't going to get us again), it was time to find a spot for the night. We traveled in a few miles from the beaches but even large towns didn't have a hotel. All of the hotels were along the beaches, so we headed back to the shore and found a place to stay in Luc Sur Mer. It wasn't the greatest, but we were tired enough to sleep anywhere. There was another great restaurant, "Le Corsaire," where we had excellent white fish. Jan and Terre also had a great fish soup. Tomorrow Honfleur and Toutencourt .