Le Mont St. Michel: 30x30 Outfit 4

 Skirt: TJ Maxx (Patagonia) / Top & Bracelet: J Crew Factory / Shoes: Privo / Earrings: Gabes (Monet) / Hat: J Crew final sale /  Jacket: Gap

Do you know le Mont St. Michel? If not, it's my great pleasure to introduce you.  Mes amis, je vous présente L'Abbayé Merveilleuse*, Le Mont St. Michel:

Here are 10 fun little bits about this lovely dame:

1. The abbey you see at the top of this hill was begun in the 700s.  Throughout the years it was enlarged and a small town developed around it. It's been a famous Christian pilgrimage site for centuries.

2. The wall around the the town was added as defense against the English invasions in the 100 Years War. The abbey held strong and the town was never taken.

3. It's situated in an area that gets the second highest, most dangerous tides in the world, raising over 50 feet between high and low tide. Cars are warned to be out by high tide, lest they be washed away.  At low tide you can walk the mudflats around the abbey and hardly see the ocean line. At high tide water laps the town walls, turning it into an island.

4. The town circling the abbey is a twisted mass of cobbled streets lined with stone walls, hidden gardens and flowered terraces, cliffs, turrets, cafes, shops, bakeries, quaint hotels, and intertwining stairways leading up to the abbey.

5. Tourists like to bring their dogs. They get in the way. But then you hear perfectly British exchanges like this and no longer care:  A lady is on the left of a wall-lined path, her dog stretching his leash to the right. A gentleman comes to the leash, the lady says in a perfect British accent, "So sorry," and pulls her dog close. The man says, "That's a good lady, there," in an even more British accent, to which she replies, "Thank-ye, kind sir." You momentarily wonder if you've stumbled into Mary Poppins's world.

6. There are lots of small doors. Which no one answers.

7.  Baby birds live in the turret windows and cry heart breakingly when their mamas leave to find food. Then you see the mama return with food and jump in delight as the downy baby hops in equal delight.

8. Salted caramels made from the salt marshes near the abbey can make anything seem better. Even having your i-phone stolen. And used for lots of international calls. I hope they're looking at photos of me pushing the Hound in a swing at the park with remorse. Whoever has the Husband's phone is a big meanie. Whoever thought of salting caramel was a genius.

9. Cafés serving flambéed Normand dishes, like this apple and apple sorbet crêpe, won't flambé it in front of you because of the wind. Instead, they heat the liquor inside, then ask how much you want and you tell them to keep pouring because you want a big flame. They ask if you're sure, then drown your crêpe with a smile. You then find out that wind thing.

10. At night, flood lights point up towards the abbey, lighting it up as a beacon for miles around.  We wish we could've stayed to see this, but it's a long drive to Carcassonne and we needed to be going.  So you can check out professional photos of it here.

And there you go, l'Abbayé Mont St. Michel.  I really can't wait to edit my photos. It's been awfully cloudy. I'm calling it stormy and mysterious instead of annoying, but it's so hard to get good shots in that lighting with our camera.

À demain* from Carcassonne! { And yes, if you're a nerd like me that likes games like that, it is indeed the town upon which the board game of the same name is modeled. }

P.S. If you ever go to France, never never never stay in a F1 hotel. Simply awful.

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*Mes amis, je vous présente L'Abbayé Merveilleuse...: Friends, I give you the Abbey of Marvels...; À demain = See you tomorrow
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