Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Mt St Michele



Last Saturday morning was the start of the 2016 tour -de-France, three weeks of cycle racing through the wonderful landscape of France.  France has some wonderful cities, I'll never pass an opportunity to visit Paris, but the back roads and villages in Franc are truly amazing.  I love the small towns of stone houses and shops, that real people, really live in.  The people are warm, welcoming and genuine.  The food and drink are - well they are French and the French don't do mediocre or bad food. I could live there.

So how is this connected,  to Mt St Michele, was the starting point for the Tour this year.  The Mt is a stone outcropping, in the midst of a huge tidal plane.  There is a delightful village and a church and monastery at the top of the hill.  When it was built it was protected by high tide, as the outcropping became an island at high tide, and access to the island was either by foot at low tide or by boat at high tide.  Over the past 50 years a causeway has been built providing 24 hour street access to the Mt.  The parking lots along the side of the causeway are still on the tidal flat and flood at high tide.

I have been to Mt St Michele twice.  I love that part of France.

3 comments:

  1. I didn't get to see that when I visited france. but I did spend time in evian, where the bottled water is created. nice walkable little village.

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  2. I don't think I'll ever get to visit France in my lifetime. Maybe I'll visit Quebec one more time.

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  3. dear me! They seem to have quite the plumbing problem.

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