From Montmartre to Mont-St-Michel

Well, sleeping in so late was not a great idea.  I was probably up until 3am or so, with an early morning alarm set... Oh well, since our bags were already packed we snoozed the alarm until everyone finally rolled out of bed just before 8.  By the time everybody got changed, pulled out the extras that were needed, and repacked the little stuff, we headed out for our trip to Mont-St-Michel.  I'm not sure where I first saw or heard of this little island, but I do know that Alan Lee used it as inspiration when making his illustrations for Lord of the Rings (I think Minas Tirith, but can't recall exactly).

We stopped at the local bakery one last time for our breakfast on the train (€12 or so) and caught the 8:45 Metro headed to Montparnasse. Our train tickets we had bought a month or two ago (BUY CERTAIN TRAIN TICKETS EARLY TO SAVE SOME MONEY FOLKS!) left Montparnase Station at 10:05. Well we were supposed to leave then, but there was some sort of delay either in leaving or during the 2ish hour ride, that we lost a bunch of time. So by the time we got to Rennes, we missed our bus connection. The busses are timed to align with the train arrivals, so there was no getting around it, and we weren't the only ones. They had called another coach to come pick up all us eager travelers, but had no idea when it would show up; and the next scheduled bus wasn't due for another 3 1/2 hours. Luckily for us, the coach came in about 30 minutes and we hit the road.

Found some Totoros at the Rennes Bus Station

It was about 1 1/2 hour bus ride from Rennes to Mont-St-Michel and finally, after a little more trouble getting an "extra" bus to pull into the gated parking area, we finally got to the Mont. With all our backpacks. 5km from our hotel. And nobody spoke english at the hotel, so we couldn't arrange a ride. Okay, so we walk, big deal right? Wrong! We got to the hotel, checked in, and dropped our bags off... just in time to miss the shuttle back to the parking area. Do you get the theme of our day yet?

Katie insisting on holding onto Lily's hand

So we walked back to the Mont parking area (taking a shortcut on a small farm road through the corn) which took about 20 minutes. Just in time to CATCH the tramride over to the actual island. Maybe our fortunes are changing!?! Okay, it's about 5pm now, we can quick run up the little island mountain and get inside the abbey at the top before it closes at 6. Guess what- we got up there 20 minutes too late, they stop admission at 5. AARGGHHH Well we had all sort of given up but Melissa managed to sneak in backwards, through the locked door after someone exited, and get a couple pictures from the other side of the abbey. The kids and I stayed in a small courtyard and built a little fairy house/spa/hotel thing. Once Melis got back we meandered through the narrow and steep streets to the main drag, where all the shops and restaurants were. Well guess what, we meandered to slowly and many of the shops were closing down. Yeah, what's new? Okay, well we can at least get some dinner, albeit an expensive one. Guess what, restaurants are closed until 7, when these Frenchies are finally ready for dinner. No real surprises there. Mary was melting down, but we stuck to our promise that they could pick the restaurant, and found a few more nooks and crannies to explore.

We went to what we thought was Le Mouton Blanc, but when we asked to go upstairs to have a view turned into eating at the Cafe Mere Poulard. We get a table for 6 and order 4 kids entrees and 2 adults. I'm a bit hesitant to order Katie her own food since she hasn't wanted anything that we offered, but it turned out it was a good idea (she went to town on that chicken!) The service was pretty slow, but since we were up on the terrace the kids could keep leaving the seating area and checking out the views of the island, so they were kept busy for a while. When the food arrived, oh my goodness it was AWESOME! I had read quite a few reviews that restaurants were pretty pricey for mediocre food, but this was not the case today. Push our day back towards the positive! Melissa had ordered oysters for her starter and even though I wasn't brave enough to try any, a friendly bribe from a nearby table got Joey to swallow his fears (and a slimy wad of seafood). We also got to chatting with an adjacent table when the couple came in, to find out that Kim & Joe were from Oregon and had been in France for 4 weeks, even though this was their first trip to Mont-St-Michel. The kids seemed to adore them and couldn't stop chatting (even though I lightly chided and asked and pleaded and tried to explain that they might want each other's company more than theirs). Joe let us try a few of his Mussels and Kim her lamb. The mussels were much firmer than the oysters and much less salty, the lamb was phenomenal. Probably 2 hours after we sat down, we (as well as our new friends) were still waiting for desserts, and luckily Kim took control of the matter and got the staff to hurry. After quickly finishing up the ice cream, I took the kids out of the seating area (mainly to calm the rapidly escalating scene, and they showed me this weird little arrangement they made earlier about knights of the banana or something like that. Melissa came over a little while later and told me that Kim and Joe had paid our dinner bill - I guess the kids must have made their day! We tried to thank them again but they had left the restaurant before we got back to the seating area.

We let the kids screw around a little longer, and a bit more exploring, while we waited for the tide to come up. As we headed down to the causeway to leave, the tide peaked. It was perfect timing really. And just at that moment, who did we come across but Joe and Kim once again! We thanked them for dinner, and after a family picture and a facebook friend request, we headed back to our hotel. We thought the busses might be running until late into the night, but that turned out to be just the tram to the visitor center. Well just a short 20-minute walk through the French cornfields later, we arrived, the kids collapsed into bed, and we packed our backpacks for a checkout that will undoubtedly come much too soon.