Yesterday I went to Mont St Michel with four girls from my program. We met at the train station in Paris at 8:45 am and took a two hour train ride to Rennes. Then, we took an hour bus ride from Rennes to Mount St Michel. Even though it took forever to get there, it was definitely worth it. I was so excited to finally go to the island that I had first learned about from my French teacher in 6th grade. It looked so cool as we approached it from the distance on the land bridge that connects it to the mainland. We got off the bus and took a bunch of pictures in front of the whole island before we started exploring. Once we got inside the main entrance, I was amazed at how many shops and restaurants there were on the windy street that you couldn't even see from the land bridge. There was much more to do than I expected, and there were a lot of people walking around.
Since we had been traveling all morning, we decided to find a restaurant for lunch. We ate at a cute little place with one waiter and the slowest service I have ever experienced... even in France. I ordered a leg of duck which seems to be all I eat here because I am in love with it. For dessert, we wanted to try something different, so a couple of us ordered different desserts with "Normanie apples" in them. As I took my first bite of my sundae, I soon found out that this means the apples are covered in hard alcohol. The taste was so strong and absolutely not what I was expecting. I was able to eat all of the whipped cream on top and some of the ice cream that managed to escape being drowned in the alcohol, but it was a struggle to find salvageable areas. The sundae was huge, so everyone at the table helped a little with finishing it, mostly because they all wanted to try it. We got some good pictures of the disgusted faces made when trying the first bite. Now I know never to order anything "Normandie" ever again. At least it was a learning experience :)
After lunch, we made our way up the winding alley and the thousands of steps to the Abbey at the top. The view was amazing of the ocean and all the sand stretched out from all sides since it was low tide. The Abbey was huge and there were so many different rooms to see and little tunnels and doors to explore. We walked all around, and looked at the views from all the different outside areas. Then, we took a different way down that lead us around the outside to a pretty walkway through the trees.
We only had about four hours to spend on the actual island because of all the traveling that we had to do to get there and back and the times of the trains and buses. Because of this, we had to leave right after we finished walking around the Abbey to head back for the bus. When we arrived back in Rennes, we had an hour and a half until our train back to Paris, so we found a place to eat dinner. I had a chocolat chaud and a Croque Monsieur, my other go-to meal here. It was exactly what I needed after the disastrous lunch dessert and it left me full and happy for my two hour train ride home. I didn't get back to my apartment until about 11:30 pm, so it was a really long day but it was so much fun and definitely worth it!
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