Dinan to Mont St Michel

 Another grey day and threatening rain. We only have a short distance to go and we only had a bit of drizzle until we got near our destination and then it hosed down. 

We were too early to check into our hotel but we could park in the hotel carpark and leave gear in the lobby. 

We have arrived at probably the 2nd most photographed place in France behind the Eiffel Tower. 

Mont Saint Michel is an icon. Of course there are tourists everywhere but for good reason, this place is epic. 

We jumped on the free shuttle bus which traverses a causeway out to the island. The weather had fined up and the tide was out so we could wander around the island to get different perspectives and to truly appreciate the scale of this place. 

 We then entered the compoumd and meandered up and up and joined a queue to get tickets into the abbey proper. We opted to get the audio guide as well which was well worthwhile. 

The design and engineering of the abbey is off the scale of my understanding. How it was built in those medieval times is incomprehensible. I was gobsmacked around every corner.

During the 18th century just after the French revolution it was used as a prison. In this time a trolley was installed to get supplies in from the mainland. It looks a bit like those lifts you see rising up the steep cliffs in Wellington. Where this one is different is there is a massive wheel at the top connected to a pulley with a rope  It was powered by prisoners inside the wheel and walking . Just like those wheels that pets mice use for exercise. 

They pulled the goods up from way down there. 

After a couple of hours our tour was over and we opted to walk back over the causeway instead of taking the bus.  There was quite a queue waiting for the bus so it was my suggestion to walk the 2 1/2 kms.  Loyal Robyn said OK despite having a bit of a foot problem which my selective hearing had somehow filtered out. By the time we got to the hotel she was unhappy ( actually in pain) but thankfully no lasting damage. We sauntered / limped across the road for ice cream. 

We had a nice meal and we seem to have settled on a style of wine we both like so all is well with the world. 

It has been a fabulous day, I’m so glad we came but we won’t be sorry to leave the mega tourist trail behind. 

We were there and did a selfie! 



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