Sunday, June 2nd
Reluctantly checked out of Les Villas d'Arromanches hotel made our way out of town while waves of D-Day tourists poured in. The road to Mont Saint Michel continued the pastoral dream of lush fields and quaint villages.
Mont Saint Michel - checked into Hotel le Mouton Blanc at 4:00pm and the reason I know the exact time is because a very rude desk clerk cut off all attempts to talk with, "4 O'CLOCK!!!" After sitting outside on the curb for an hour and a half, he grudgingly marched Pam up to an unsatisfactory room in the hotel and gave Gabi and I directions to an unmarked "annex" which contained a somewhat less unsatisfactory room. It was too hot to close the unscreened window, so we beguiled the night guessing which species of bird or bat would come sailing in first. A pair of seagulls were nested on a roof 8 feet away and I was sure we would be scooping out guano before the dawn. However, this place is absolutely magical and the extra time we got to explore it, because we were staying overnight, was worth it all. This granite island has been several things since early in the Christian era, but it ended up as a fortified Catholic abbey, which you can see today. It looks like the Disneyland castle from a distance, but it also looks like a castle when you're walking around inside. Fortified walls have holes to shoot arrows through and to pour boiling oil down enemies. Rough stone streets, walls and stairs are hundreds of years old, not recent reproductions. Ancient brick and tile houses cluster around the base in a medieval village. I could go on, but it is gorgeous. Visit if you get the chance, but, maybe don't spend the night!
Joe
