Chapter 33: Double Saints? No Complaints.

nerd blog post #36

Late last night I skyped with my family. There were seven of them about to sit down at 99 Kimberley for a big feast of gobble-gobble, as my dad would say. I though yesterday would be hard, not being at home, but it was one of the best days I have had in France so far, and I felt very thankful.

After blogging yesterday, Cynthia, RtC and I made a picnic lunch of sammys and apples and treats. Then we headed to Mont Saint-Michel with Alexandre, one of the roommates. The other, Nicolas, is the one who studies in Saint-Malo, and since he was staying there for the week last night, just planned to meet us there. The drive was fun - I love car rides, and it was neat to see the countryside. It's only an hour away.. I thought of dear Riverdale Farm as we passed by the cows and sheep along the way.

Approaching Mont Saint-Michel was really unbelievable. A giant monastery on top of a rocky hill, it was unlike anything I have ever seen. All around it (though this changes depending on the tide) was quicksand, and it looked almost like a desert. Further around it were grassy fields with sheep grazing. The sheep from that region are special because the grass is salty from the tide rolling over it, making their meat salty. The quicksand can be dangerous, and tourists are only allowed to walk on it with a guide. Many people have died trying to get their alone. They say the tide moves faster than a galloping horse, and only those who really know the area should try and be adventurous.

Alexandre's grandmother used to work in the village, and we parked for free. M S-M is the second most visited spot in France (the first is the Eiffel Tower) and on this warm(ish) Sunday afternoon, it was very busy. Below the monastery, but still within the walls, the little village is full of restaurants and tourist shops. There are hundreds of stairs that lead up to where the actual monastery is. We avoided the busy road, and took little back stairs up. It was really cool to see the backyards and little homes of the habitants of the village.

Mont Saint-Michel has been a monastery since the 8th century, and still functions as one today. It is also where some of the France's most notorious criminals were kept prisoner, because of how fortified the place is, both architecturally and geographically. It's considered important because it is said to be near the place where the archangel Michael fought the devil, and apparently this was the place where he commanded someone to build a church. Because of this, it has always been a place of pilgrimage. Among the many tourists were also hundreds of pilgrims who had walked for hours across the sand to get here. They also had horses. Near the monastary were priests who were hearing confessions from these pilgrims. It was a strange thing to see the mix of tourists and pilgrims..

We didn't go into the actual monastary itself as we'd have to pay and didn't have all day, but I'd like to sometime.

We had our picnic lunch by the car, and then headed to Saint-Michel, about thirty minutes away. There, we saw Nicolas apartment, which has a beautiful ocean view. Then we went to Sanchez, a spot famous for its ice-cream. It was delicious.

Then we hit the beach. I swam, and though it was very cold, I stayed in for quite awhile. The tide was high, but way out there were some rocks sticking out of the water, and I climbed on them. I forgot to mention that Andorra came with us for the day, and she had a blast at the beach and joined me in the water. We were there for a couple of hours, climbing over rocks and running with Andorra on the beach. The sun was setting and it was cool, so the beach was basically all ours, which was a nice change from the busy M S-M, and the beach as I had seen it with Cynthia a few weeks ago.

Returning to Nicolas, they started cooking us a feast, and it was one of the best meals I have ever had. It was sort of like a fondue, but called a raclette, named after the cheese it uses. It's a meal that comes from the southern mountain ranges in France. There's the big raclette contraption that has little individual frying pans underneath a grill. The cheese goes in there and starts melting. On the grill, you put the meat. On your plate, you cut up potatoes, then add the grilled meat, then cover it all with the melted cheese. Rinse and repeat. If it weren't for the tastiness of the raclette cheese, this meal wouldn't be half as good. But it was amazing. There were also good olives and bread. For desert, they had this mousse cake for Cynthia.

They eat around 9pm here, so we didn't end up getting home until midnight. Full and happy, I wished my family bon appetite, and went to bed shortly after.

This morning, I got up before 5am to walk RtC to the train station, as he had clown school at 9am in Paris. Today is balloon animals part 2.

I went back to bed for a couple of hours, got up to teach, and received an exciting e-mee about a special guest who has booked a ticket to visit on December 26th. SLS, the silent nerd blog subscriber, was awarded a whopping 250 points!

The rest of you are probably not working today.. I wore red yesterday and am again today for Thanksgiving. "Oh, hello! What a great top! Why red?" ... "Well, in Canada....." That's the plan, anyways. I am thinking of you all especially this week-end. I would have had dark meat and cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and jelly salad. But I'm still thankful, and it still feels a bit like Thanksgiving to me.

Happy Thanksgiving, and look out for a photo essay in the near future.

With love,
Hincks.