Thursday 10/10/09

I’m sitting here in the camper with a million dollar view of Mont Saint Michael on the coast of France in Normandy.We have just come back from a walk up and down through the fortified town and have decided to stay here in the carpark for the night. We have had to pay €8 for the privilege of parking here to see the monument so we have figured that we might as well take the opportunity to stay the night and see the town lit up by night. The tide is well out at the moment and another advantage of staying will be to see the tide come in and hopefully surround the isle. It is a typical tourist site, as you walk in it is all tourist shops and eateries, you cannot get away from the crowds jamming the small alley-like road between the shops. We found a pathway up away from the main route and made our way as far as we could towards the Abbey but on seeing the crowds of tourists lining up to go in decided that we would give that a miss. We have seen so many churches and castles by now that we do not feel the need to see everyone we come across anyway. All have been interesting in their varied ways; and we have found some of the smaller less popular ones have been the more interesting. We were nearest camper in the carpark looking directly towards the town and as the sun set the lights came on illuminating the city with a magical glow. We couldn’t believe the numbers of other campers in the carpark there must have been over 100 staying the night but all we could see was the sea and the town so we felt we were quite special.

The last few days have been relatively quiet, after leaving Carnac we headed to the north coast of Brittany staying a day in a camp ground where we could do our washing and catch up with some house-keeping. Ewout’s back was playing up so we decided we should have a day of rest and we spent a lovely afternoon by the pool in the campground. Ewout insists that I tell everyone how hard we are doing it enjoying the spa, sauna, and lazing by the pool at every opportunity. It was about 30o C and we felt it would be one of the last days of swimming weather we will have until we return to Australia, so decided to make the most of it. It was a very pleasant campsite with large camping sites surrounded by bushes and flowering shrubs so a pleasant spot to spend a day. We found out it was due to close for the season on the Saturday so apart from us there was not a lot of people about.

Unfortunately on Wednesday we woke up to drizzling rain and after visiting the nearby McDonalds to talk to our family we drove to visit the town of St Malo. By the time we arrived the weather had cleared and we enjoyed having a wander around another fortified historic town. A city founded by a 6th Century Welsh monk, its development has come from the seafarers and merchants who have made it their base. We were quite amazed to find out that 80% of the town had been devastated in the 1944 liberation battles and with careful reconstruction it has been restored to most of its former glory. We found it a very pleasant town to walk around with not a lot of the tourist trappings that you find in a lot of cities and towns, eg; buskers and mime artists, untalented musicians, souvenir sellers, portrait artists, mass produced artwork, people pretending to be statues and tour guides leading tours. All the unfortunate by- products of a popular tourist destination. Still I suppose they have to make a living. – Oh and I forgot to mention the mini train tour.

Another thing that he insists I mention is that he took me (us) out to lunch to have traditional crepes in Brittany which were very nice, washed down with local cider. You have to live the full experience! What a Guy!