Wednesday 15th July 2009 – France

I left Dave in Honfleur and set off for the picturesque Mont St-Michel, and i wasn’t disappointed.

I was extremely shattered today, and i knew i had a bit of driving to do. So i said goodbye to Dave and headed off along the north west coast. My first stop was at a place called Mont St-Michel, as recommended by Dave, and it didn’t disappoint. So what is Mont St-Michel (Saint Mont Michel), and what is there to do there?..

Mont St-Michel is a castle and settlement set upon an island in the sea. A single road takes you to the castle, which is still mostly surrounded by beach and sea.

I took a walk around the island first as the tide was out, and it all looked very impressive. You could see the houses surrounding the castle, and the castle itself at the top. Part of the way around the island was a group of girls, standing in a large square. I’m not sure if they were some kind of girl guides, or similar, but they were having a ceremony of some sort, singing and clapping each other.

I made my way to the entrance of the castle walls and begun to look around. The place was heaving with tourists, and it was difficult to move anywhere, and the streets were now filled with modern gift shops, restaurants and snack bars, but if you stood and concentrated, you could certainly get a feel for what it might have been like years ago, with the streets filled with people going about their daily business. A lot of the houses were still preserved to an extent. It was good to see, and very interesting.

I went back to the car and set off again, this time for St Malo. I’m still getting use to all the features on the Sat Nav, and as such, took a few wrong turns and had a little trouble finding a campsite. (It wasn’t until a little later on in the trip that i discovered a much easier way to find places, and much more successful also). I’m also finding that a lot of the places in my Rough Guides book don’t exist any more, never mind, as long as i have the sat nav, and a good AA road atlas.

The campsite itself was OK. It was my first this trip so i didn’t really know what to expect. The people were friendly enough and the facilities were nice. There was plenty of space, so the receptionist said i could camp anywhere, which was good.

It was also the first time putting up the tent (apart from a dummy run at home), and took a bit of tweaking but there were no problems. Once all set up, all i wanted to do was to sleep, but i was very hungry. The campsite had a fast food van just outside the entrance so i made for that. I ordered chips in my hopeless French, which was more noise than anything, and a lot of pointing and nodding. (It did get much better, honestly). I knew what i wanted to say, it was just a bit weird as it was the first time using French properly.

While waiting for my chips, i decided i also wanted a hot dog. It wasn’t long before my hot dog was brought to me, that is, half a crusty baguette with a small sausage inside. When the chips arrived i couldn’t help but laugh to myself. A huge tub filled to the top with chips, enough for two people. So i got it a bit wrong, but hey, it was food, and i managed it all. I took my belly to the tent, did my teeth then went to bed. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as i imagined, and plenty of room inside.

A few days in and I’m enjoying it.

Click here to view more pictures from today, and throughout my trip around France

Author Box Written by Daniel Stevens, Founder of Roundtheworldtrip.org. Find out more about the author in my About page. Follow me on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, or Subscribe to my RSS Feed

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