Mont Saint Michel

Mont Saint Michel is an island that you have to take a bus to (unless you want to walk.)  When the tide is out you can walk on the beach all the way across, but when the tide comes in you can't.  They have built a bridge for the buses now though.  Travel between the island and the rest of France used to be tide dependent.  It is absolutely beautiful!

This was a built in break day for my parents and they generously offered to keep any kids who wanted to stay behind.  This turned out to be a very generous offer because Drew and Judah ended up being the ones we let stay.  They don't get along super well and are a little more high maintenance even than Bobby because they don't play by themselves as easily.  Hannah wanted to stay but Brian thought she'd one day regret not seeing this and made her go.  She ended up having fun and enjoying herself.  

The only scheduled part of this day was making it to Mass in the crypt with the nuns and monks.  So we had to piddle around a little bit while we waited for the nun to meet us and take us to the crypt.  Brian took a quick picture of it before we went in.  You can see the nuns kneeling on the floor towards the front in the picture.  They sang and one nun played the harp at one point during Mass.  It was peaceful, Bobby snapped and unsnapped his rain coat nearly the entire Mass.

I LOVE to see Hannah smile.

We had packed a picnic because Kate told us it was really expensive and over priced on the island.  We had a great time eating our picnic lunch in the sunshine and soaking up the view.

On our way back down through the "town" we did some shopping and grabbed coffee.

That evening, my parents were refreshed and ready to go try out another French restaurant.  I've got to admit that I just didn't like most of the sit down dinners in France this time.  There was so much seafood and I just can't like seafood no matter how hard I try.  It's almost the only thing I don't like, besides radishes and strange meats, but I realize it is a big category and very limiting when you are on a coast.  I just ordered a side salad and a cheese plate this time.  Almost every salad I ordered during this trip had almost no dressing on it and was just green lettuce.  I guess I am spoiled by the German salads that have more things (always pickled veggies) on top than actual lettuce.