Mont Saint-Michel

The third day of our vacation was a transition day between Normandy and the Loire. We had about a three hour long drive to make, so we broke it up with a visit to Mont Saint-Michel. I'm feeling a bit lazy on the writing front today, so I'll let you read up on the history of the place on your own. It's one of those places that you've probably seen in photographs before, and if you happen to be Catholic, you probably know a little about it already as it's a pilgrimage site.

We stopped at the side of the road on the way towards the little mountain to take some photos.


We eventually arrived at the mont itself along with the rest of the crowds and parked at base on the causeway (you can't drive past the wall around the base of the island, you must walk).


Once inside the town walls, everyone winds their way up a fairly steep and narrow walkway lined with cute little restaurants and souvenir shops until you reach the monastery at the very top.


The monastery did a decent job of satisfying my gargoyle viewing desires. I love gargoyles!


We toured the entire monastery.


And then we walked back down through the town and to our car. I stopped to view this very old cannon dating to the 1400s on the way out.


After a lunch in the town just on the other side of the causeway, Jeff decided that he'd like to get some more photos of Mont Saint-Michel from a distance. He used our Garmin to select a likely looking spot and we headed that way. He got some decent shots, I think.


We spent the rest of the day getting ourselves to our next destination - a small chateau in the Loire countryside that we rented a wing of for five nights. More on that later.

Batterie Longues-sur-Mer and the American Cemetery

After visiting Port Winston, we ventured a little further up the coast to Longues-sur-Mer to see the remains of the Germany battery located there. The battery formed part of the German defenses during the Allies invasion of Normandy. There are four 150mm guns on the site, along with munitions bunkers, places for smaller machine guns, and a large command post. The site was bombed by the allied air forces, but it remained surprisingly intact.


Not all of them were intact...


You can see how huge those 150mm guns are...


You can also see Port Winston a bit farther up the coast.


We left Longues-sur-Mer and continued on up the coast to our last stop of the day, the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. This cemetery holds the remains of nearly 10,000 Americans who lost their lives in the war, most of them during the D-Day invasion. It is beautifully situated on a cliff overlooking the beach.


There are several American cemeteries spread over Europe, but this is the first one we've visited. Jeff remarked that the combination of French aesthetics and the American ability to portray the cost of victory was exceedingly powerful. I'd have to agree.


The day wasn't all WWII sightseeing. We did get a bit of French countryside tourism at the end of the day when the tiny road we took to get back to our hotel led us to this scene:


We had to wait about 10 minutes for the cows and the farmer to clear the road, but we didn't mind. The tasty French dairy products are totally worth it!