Angers - Mont St Michel - Bayeux

Angers - Mont St Michel - Bayeux

Good Shepherd community 2014 Bon Pasteur

Well,  I received the royal send off this morning from the Good Shepherd sisters ( who BTW come from all over the world). I joined them this morning for morning prayer and they prayed for my safe journey. They said when I return next time I will come as a friend, rather than a visitor. Sr Noreen gave me a lovely little memento of St Marie Euphrasie and a card to remind me of the home of Bon Pasteur. I had such a lovely time there, and have definitely picked up the spirit of St Marie Euphrasie and the Good Shepherd Congregation.

So I set off again with the aim of visiting Mont St Michel on the way to Bayeux.

Gaby Garmin was generally well behaved and reliable, but I had a few "Gulp.." moments. Apparently my maps aren't  totally up to date and when it came time to join the freeway, the map was just showing a blank.... eeekkkkk!!! What do I do...??? But the signpost said Rennes and fortunately last night I had been in Google maps to find my route and I remembered Rennes was on the journey. So I chanced my hand and luckily I was on the right route, and Gaby Garmin kicked in quite quickly after that.

The other moment was on my way to Mont St Michel, and for some reason she took me through some little country back roads. It was an excellent chance to see the French countryside, but I have to admit I was a bit worried that she knew where she was taking me. I have learnt that sometimes you just have to ignore her commands and go where the signposts, or your instincts lead....

I had also underestimated the distance, and my journey from Angers to Mont St Michel took nearly three hours. Once I connected with that freeway the driving was easy. The speed limit is often 130 km/h and it has  taken a little getting used to. I was cruising along at 120 km/h but was getting left behind. Nearly all these freeways are double laned and there are heaps of trucks in the righthand lane, so you have to move left to pass them, and in that left lane you need to do 130 km/h. I have to admit my car goes pretty well so it's easy to keep up. I just keep praying everything goes ok...

BTW here is a pic of my little car

Mont St Michel was something else... I really enjoyed my time there, although I didn't get there until 12.30, and was conscious of the time - still needing another 1 and 1/2 hours to get to Bayeaux.

I thought I might have had a heart attack when I had to climb so many stairs to get to the top... I saw a  few other people struggling too... and noticed a defibrillator half way up!!!

I was particularly interested in the monastery part which was right at the top... I took the audio tour and listened to all the commentary about the different phases of life in the monastery. I loved the cloister at the top.... even got someone to take my pic up there...!!

Here's a few more pics. It's too hard to trace the whole history of this place in a few lines in a blog

Here's a link if you would like to explore further
http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/index.htm?lang=en

The thing that always amazes me about these places is the age of them... One of the rooms was built in 1040 AD - it's hard to believe I am in the same room as people were over 1000 years ago...

Here's some more pics..

More candles - this time we're praying to St Michael the Archangel, to whom the monasteryis dedicated

Essential tourism

Cloisters

 

Abbey Church

Monk's Refectory (Dining Room)

View from the top

Had some more learning curves when going to Mont St Michel...

I had to go around the block 3 times before I worked out the parking...You had to take a ticket and then pay at the end - finding the payment box was more good luck than good management...
You had to park on the mainland, then a bus took you across.

It seems that my Mastercard won't work in these situations, as explained in the toll story yesterday... must be the inbuilt pin. It certainly worked when I bought petrol today... Ahhh the challenges of lfe on the road.

Anyway I arrived safely in Bayeux - Gaby behaved herself this time and took me by the most direct route...

My hotel is lovely. It's called Chateau du Bellefontaine

 

My hotel

View from my window

It is set a bit apart from the mainstream and I think it's about 15 mins walk into town.

Met up with a lovely American couple at the hotel who invited me to join them for tea. Nice to make connections.
There is a lovely bar here with an open fire - this is my kind of place!!

Tomorrow I hope to go and look at the Bayeux tapestry in the morning, then in the afternoon I have a booked into a D Day tour, so I'm looking forward to that.

So,  it's been a big day with lots of driving... but it's been really enjoyable.

Now, it's definitely time for bed.....