7:13am. That’s what time I had to catch my train from Caen to Pontorson/Mont St. Michel (the castle on the rock). Man was it early, but somehow I made it on time, but as usual I had to run to make it on time. Haha I swear, I’m always sprinting to train stations because I’m late or need to make a tight connection. Anyway, the train/bus system for getting to Mont St. Michel was pretty miserable/ impossible, and ended up taking ~4 hours to get there. AND, it was raining! Not a good start for the day.
I’m not exactly sure on the history of Mont St. Michel, but I know it was a strongpoint and symbol of strength for the French because the English were never able to capture it. I opted not to pay 4.50 euro for the audio guide (entrance fee was 5.50 euro), which is something I probably should have done. Either way, it was cool walking around the castle doing the tour at the top. The castle is in a unique location as its built on a big rock/island that is half in the ocean half on land. It’s hard to describe, but the land around the rock/island is so flat, that the tide goes out for miles around the castle. This is why its famous of course, and apparently you can do walking tours out on the flats which would be fun, assuming you don’t step into a sinkhole. It’s also famous for being a fairly large/prominent monetary I believe.
Unfortunate, the weather wasn’t so good and it was cloudy rainy the whole time. I can imagine that it’s quite beautiful in the summertime, but overall I didn’t think it was that cool, and was ready to leave after spending 2 hours there. Unfortunately, I had to wait 2 more hours to take a bus back into Pontorson, so I could take another bus to a different city, where I would take a train back to Caen. Ugh… Well, as luck would have it, I sat next to a nice elderly couple during lunch and they offered to drive me back to a town 15 minutes from Caen. Sweet! Paul and Ellen were super nice and were a lot of fun to talk to. They live in San Francisco, but are from New York, and have traveled to Europe numerous times and plan to travel more in their retirement. They thought the idea/concept of couchsurfing was very cool, and I had a good time telling them all about it.
After getting dropped off in Bayeaux (only took 1.5 hours, not 4) and seeing the guesthouse they were staying in, I made my way through the city to the famous Tapestry in Bayeaux. I was actually in Bayeaux the day before, but the place closed before I could check it out. I didn’t think it was going to be that cool (Paul convinced me to go however), but it was actually very impressive. It’s a 70 meter cloth (2 feet tall) with beautiful stitching that details the events leading to the battle of Hastings and how William the Conqueror became, William the Conqueror. Only 10 colors were used, and the detail is remarkable. I had a great time listening to the story with my audio guide (free! But the entrance fee was 3.80 euro). There was a little museum attached as well, and even a mini movie theatre which explained more details about the famous tapestry, whose creator remains unknown. Either way, the tapestry was a pleasant surprise, and if you ever go to Normandy, make sure to check out the tapestry in Bayeaux.
Taking the train back to Caen was easy, but unfortunately all the roomies were gone so I had to chill at a coffee shop for a while until they got back. It wasn’t a problem tho, and gave me some time to blog about my trip. The rest of the night was fun hanging out with Leo, Olav and Catarina, tho they all had some homework or other side projects to work on. But as always, we had a long dinner together which was good. Solid day, tho the most memorable part of the day wasn’t what I was expecting. Haha Mont St. Michel wasn’t as cool as I was expecting, but the old couple who gave me ride were awesome and the tapestry that I originally didn’t want to see turned out to be very cool. I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes.
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