August 9th : Le Havre & Mont St Michel, France
Our Journey to Mont St Michel
[Updated: 26/08/2012]
We awoke early as we needed to be ready for our full day excursion to the famous French abbey of Mont St Michel, off the coast of Brittany.
The tour would occupy the entire day, which was fine as the French port of La Havre is mostly an industrial centre and contained no real attractions.
As we understand it, La Havre is used by cruise liners as a port of call for passengers to go on day trips to Paris (which is approximately three hours each way by coach). As we were to spend many days there later in the month, we skipped those tours.
The weather was not encouraging
As promised, our room attendant had distributed our daily ship notes the night before (and did so every night until we reached Rome without fail) so we were able to read ahead to see what sort of activities we could expect on board.
Before we gathered with our tour group, we enjoyed an express breakfast in the Silhouette (main dining room) restaurant which was served with efficiency.
As we departed we had to pass through security, swiping our SeaPass cards as we left the ship. Our tour guide spoke English and French, although he spoke English the majority of the excursion. We boarded the bus and started heading west first crossing the river Seine across one of France’s larger suspension bridges.
The French town of Honfleur, en route to the Abbey
Our trip to Mont St Michel required two three hour stints in a coach in order to reach our destination, but included lunch at a French restaurant close to the Abbey.
The weather was appallingly overcast and bleak. We were worried that it would be raining at our destination, which would have been horrible for photo taking and for exploring the Abbey.
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As luck would have it (and as we were told by our guide) we were passing through many different climates on our way south west, and as we approached the Normandy/Brittany boarder, the weather cleared to reveal a beautiful blue sky.
What we did not expect was to find ourselves travelling through some serious farmland and agricultural areas. When we thought of Europe (in general terms) we considered it would likely be rather heavily populated (by stark contrast to Australia). In fact, the population density is mostly in the major cities. The rest is fairly sparsely populated.
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We passed many small villages, farms and pastures on our way. The occasional Norman cow and various crops of barley rolled by as serene as the landscape itself. Our trip was informative and otherwise uneventful. The time passed relatively quickly.
The approach to Mont St Michel (a 13th century abbey in Normandy) is amazing. For starters, it can be seen well over 30kms away, and is hard to describe just how startling the view is.
Before we arrived at the Abbey, we stopped for lunch and the group ate nice French cuisine (except poor Toni who could not eat the Chicken provided). We briefly took photos before re-boarding the bus and continuing the journey.
One of the first things I noticed, from a distance, was a large sea of Winnebagos which literally formed a white haze in front of the famous Abbey. We were to find the place packed full of tourists, all clambering for the top.
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The buildings there are simply astonishing, and have stood the test of time. Built in the Gothic design, the abbey was also used as a prison after the French Revolution. The tiny island is a working village although, as you might expect, most of the commerce deals in tourism and retail.
Our ascent to the top was hard going, not so much physically but more in terms of dealing with the mass of less able people trying to climb the several hundred stone steps.
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Being with a tour group has some certain advantages; in this case we did not have to queue at the Abbey for entrance, instead being admitted via the tour group gate. We had yet more climbing to do, and passed under several archways before coming to the very top.
The view from the tiny island is just as breathtaking as the view from the distance, approaching it. On offer, at the top were sweeping views across both Normandy and Brittany as far as the eye could see – and in perfect weather.
The main church hall sits at the very top, beside a large open area. Other rooms were built below and to the side of the main area to reinforce the structure.
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It is an engineering marvel that in medieval times the French were able to construct this amazing Abbey. Using the most basic of equipment they managed to transform the peak of this small location and erect a truly remarkable structure.
View from the top / interior courtyard 
Toni at the top / inside the chapel 
Statue of St Michel / Rob descending
Rather than try to describe the Abbey and surrounding buildings, I’ve tried to include a good cross section of photos, since photos can say a thousand words.
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Needless to say that the building was remarkable and fulfilled an ambition which Rob had had since first seeing a picture of Mont St Michel in a history textbook way back in 1992 (year 8 History class).
On our return to the village below, we made a few gift shop purchases, to remember our trip including a tiny miniature replica of the island.
The view from the village
We spent a short hour wandering into the village and eventually re-boarding the coach for our return to the Equinox.
The return voyage was uneventful, and we arrived not long before the Equinox disembarked and returned into the English Channel.
In the evening, we enjoyed a glass blowing exhibition (by the Corning Museum of Glass) on the Lawn Club level before heading to the Blu restaurant for dinner.
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