Leaving Normandy

After yesterdays’ beautifully sunny day, we woke up to another stunner today.

We slept ‘downstairs’ last night as it was pretty chilly and we’re trying not to use the heating until we really need to.  Powell was grateful of the company we think, although I don’t think he appreciated having to share his space again.

We were up at around 9am; which seems to be the norm these days bar a couple of slightly earlier risings.  We were off on the bikes by just after 10am.  We’d already read that dogs are allowed onto the island of Mont St Michel, but they aren’t allowed in the Abbey.  As we’d decided not to visit the Abbey, we took Powell with us.

We parked our bikes up and joined the crowds to walk up the causeway.  There are free shuttle buses from the car park which ferry people to and from the island, but as we had Powell with us, we couldn’t use them...the French don’t seem to be as doggy welcoming as the Germans are.

It was pretty busy, probably due to the combination of the lovely weather and the fact that we’re halfway through the French half term holidays.  I’d hate to have visited in the summer as the street leading up to the abbey is really narrow and it was already quite crowded at 11am on what I presume was a fairly quiet day compared to late summer.

As stunning as Mont St Michel looks from the outside, despite its high acclaim in travel guides galore, it wasn’t really for us.

Although you could see that the island has been well maintained (there were diggers and scaffolding present when we visited today), it just seemed too much like a cheesy tourist trap (full of tat shops and hotels) to us.  All of the buildings had more of an olde worlde theme park feel about them rather than the genuine rustic charm that we had expected from a world reputed religious monument.

I’m sure the abbey is beautiful inside but as we had Powell with us and dogs aren’t allowed in, we didn’t get to find out.

On a positive note, it’s another tick in our travel box, I got some lovely pictures of the outside and the weather was glorious – 19 degrees C in late October...bloody marvellous!

We got back to Dora and packed up ready to set sail again.  When we arrived at the aire, we’d read that water and emptying was included in the price, so we headed to the service point before we hit the road.  We managed to empty the grey and black but on closer inspection, discovered that it was another €3 for fresh water, despite the sign clearly saying otherwise.  A mangled Frenglish telephone conversation with the owner confirmed that we had indeed been misled.  We could have paid the fee and topped up, but out of principle, because we were pretty miffed, we left with an almost empty tank.  Thankfully in France, it’s not hard to find free water!

Lesson learned, we left Normandy and headed to a place that’s fast becoming our favourite destination....Carrefour Market, to pick up some supplies before our first overnight stop in Brittany.  We’re thinking we’re probably going to end up with gout if we stay in France much longer...

So we just about managed to tear ourselves away from our lifeline and we are now parked up in Pleslin Trigavou, one of the many, many towns that begins with Pl...!  We have no idea why; if anyone does, please do enlighten us!  Our stopover also appears to be another hangout for the local teenage population and their mopeds.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading back towards the coast.  We’re missing the comforting sound of the waves; 50cc moped engines just aren’t the same, so we’re off to see Cape Frehel, supposedly one of the must see sights in Brittany.

We’ve heard there is some beautifully rugged coastline in Brittany and we’re looking forward to exploring it.