La Vie en France: Rennes+Mont Saint Michel

The Mont Saint Michel abbey was on my "bucket list" here for the past 5 years or so. Ever since I saw a picture of it I knew I needed to go there! I've been trying to go forever, but I lived too far away, and it's very difficult to get there since there aren't any train stations close-by. You can see on this map that's it's actually located on a small island in the middle of the English channel, surrounded by quicksand, and you used to be able to access it only when the tide was down. Since then they've built a causeway so that cars and buses have access to it, even when the tide is up.

After some research and some help from Rick Steves, I figured out that there were buses to go there from a town called Rennes, about an hour and a half south of the abbey. I knew nothing about Rennes, but it's easy to get to from Paris and we got a great hotel deal through Thibaut's company.

When we got to Rennes, we were very pleasantly surprised. We weren't planning on spending much time there, but we ended up really loving the town! Lots of cool restaurants, bars, and young people, and since most of the houses are half-timbered (like in Alsace!), I fell in love with the place. We also found these huge gardens in the middle of the city, with thousands of flowers everywhere! It was a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do, so it was a perfect day to hang out in a beautiful park.

Rennes

Local specialties: Buckwheat crêpes and Cider

my favorite street

quick beer stop during the brief rainstorm

Parc Thabor

On Monday we got up early to catch the bus, and headed for Mont-Saint-Michel. The weather was perfect, not one cloud in the sky and not too cold. We really lucked out! When we got to the island, we spent some time walking around the town that's at the bottom of the island (population of 30 people!) and then headed up to the abbey. We did a tour in French, and unfortunately the lady was Spanish so I could barely understand her! Even the French people were saying they really had to concentrate to understand what she was saying. Luckily I looked up the history later on when I got home. The place was first built as pilgrimage center in the 6th century. They built it high on the island to be as close to heaven as possible. It was occupied by monks for almost the entire time up until 2001, except for a short period during the Resistance in the 18th century, when they used it as a prison for over 300 priests who refused to renounce Catholicism. The inside isn't all that exciting, unless you think about the history of it. So here are some pics, and if you get a chance, it's definitely worth a short visit!

Mont-Saint-Michel!