Mont-Saint-Michel

This weekend I spent a day at Mont-Saint-Michel and Rennes, the capital of the region of Brittany. I was a bit worried about visiting Mont-Saint-Michel as I had heard that it was the second most visited place in all of France, and I have seen how busy some of the tourist sites in Paris can be during summer. I thought I might be okay, visiting whilst it is still officially winter, but the thing with Europe, I have discovered, is that it doesn't matter what you do, there will always be hundreds of other people with the same idea as you. In the end it turned out well, there were a few tourists there, but never enough to get in your way or give you a claustrophobic feeling, but enough so that you don't feel like a freak wandering around and taking photos of everything.

This place really is spectacular, it's this one island, now linked by a 2km causeway to the mainland, and all around it the countryside is completely flat. It was first built in the 8th century on the island of Mont-Tombe in honour of the archangel Michael (or Michel as the French call him). The Mont then became a major focus of pilgrimage and the Benedictine monks settled there during the 10th century. During the Hundred Years War with the English a serious amount of ramparts were built and it remained impenetrable, thus becoming a symbol of national identity. It was actually besieged 3 times and was the only place in western and northern France not to fall into English hands. After the French Revolution when religious organisations were dissolved the Mont became a prison, and remained that way until 1863. It is now a World Heritage Site.

Now whilst it was spectacular and all I was slightly disappointed, it reminded me of Chambord in the Loire Valley. Both Mont-Saint-Michel and Chambord are owned by the French government and it seems that the government is only interested in maintaining these monuments rather than displaying them to their full potential. Both the Mont and Chambord were just a building with empty rooms, like the refectory to the left, this was the most furnished room with a few wooden tables, and whilst if you are interested in architecture that is probably great, you don't want furniture and tapestry cluttering up your views of the walls, but I am more interested in the history of a place. I can understand them not adding old furniture and tapestries in as that would add a whole other level to the maintenance, having to add security and humidity/light control to the upkeep. A few signs and pictures up explaining the life and history of the monks and the mont would have added a lot to the visit though.

The Mont has been around since 708, it has been through wars, revolution, monkhood, it's been a prison, an abbey, a sanctuary and a fortress, I reckon there are probably some good stories amongst all that time. I mean the Benedictine monks are pretty freaky, I find monks slightly strange in general, so you want to know what makes someone become a monk, what was their position in society, what did they do during the day. Also how did this place become a prison, who did it house, and what was with the Hundred Years War, who fought at Mont-Saint-Michel, do the monks ride out swinging their maces or was it the French army? There are so many questions that you would like answered but there was no information given, the audio guide I hired was okay, but a bit too full of things like "and the pillars are mounted on hexagonal bases". I can see that the pillars have hexagonal bases, I want to know what this room was used for! Perhaps if you go with a tour they answer all these questions for you, but one draw-back to it still being winter, was that there were only tours in French.

That said about being interested in the history, the architecture of the place is pretty amazing too. The photo to the left is the cloisters and the building at the back is known as the Merveille (or marvel), and it really is a marvel. This was added to the church in the 13th century and it really says something about the builders back then. They managed to build two blocks of 3-storey buildings on the top of a very steeply sloped hill. The cloisters, to the left, and the refectory to to the back are at the top of the Merveille, directly below is the guests' hall and then below that is the almory, where the peasants entered. All this building was achieved in only 16 years, I don't know if modern day builders could have done as well. Well they probably could, it would just end up being massively over budget.

You can really see in the photo to the left of the Knights' Hall the starkness of the rooms. This was built to hold up the cloisters, maybe that gives you some idea of the scale of this building. This was the main room for the monks, where all their work and study was done, but now nothing remains, just a whole bunch of columns. It's very hard to get a sense of someone's life when you don't have anything to go on.











Here is Mont-Saint-Michel from the beach side, the Merveille is the big rectangular building to the right of the church spire. You can also see here the little town of Mont-Saint-Michel which currently houses a permanent population of 42 people. You can really see how small this island is and how dominating the abbey is, all up it is about 1km to walk around on the beach. You have to be careful where you walk though, there are signs up warning of quicksand. In the Bayeux tapestry there is a scene of Norman soldiers having to be rescued from the sands.

The tides of Mont-Saint-Michel are probably as famous as the abbey, at the biggest tides there is a difference of 15m. There are signs up in car park informing people when the high tide of the day is, but every year they lose about 10 cars, because people don't move them in time. This only occurs at the highest of tides, which certainly wasn't the day I visited. The local legend also goes that the tides can reach the speed of galloping horses (or about 10km/hr), not sure about that one though.

Looking through the ramparts which managed to hold off three attacks by the English in the 15th century. You can see the endless expanse of beach which surrounds the Mont to the north.





















All the tour buses lined up in the car park, I hate to imagine what this place must look like in summer. The only way to the Abbey is up a narrow, steep road. You can only really fit, at most, 4 people across so it must just be an absolute crush in summer.














One last shot of the spectacular Mont-Saint-Michel, overall I would definitely recommend a visit, but go with a tour, I think that would add so much to the experience.

English vs French Leaders

I saw these two statues, near each other, whilst I was out and about in Paris on weekend. I think it shows the difference between the French and the English quite well, as represented by their leaders. First we have Charles de Gaulle, jauntily striding along, looking like he is on a fashion runway. Then we have Churchill, who basically looks like a grumpy old man. I also like how the French have put de Gaulle on this massive pedestal whilst old Churchill was hidden amongst some trees.

Petit and Grand Palais

The other weekend I paid a visit to the Petit and Grand Palais in Paris, for those of you who have ever visited Paris, the Grand Palais is the very impressive looking, glass-roofed building on the other side of the Seine from the Louvre. I had seen this building everytime I visited the Louvre or many other tourist attractions and always thought that it looked like yet another palace built for one king or another. When I visited it though I discover it was actually built in 1900 for the "Exposition Universelle" and houses temporary exhibitions. Unfortunately it wasn't housing anything the day I visited and so I could only peer through the glass doors to see what was inside. That really ruined my dreams of opulence, inside it just looked like a big barn, and as they were preparing for the next exhibition there was even a truck parked in the middle of the hall, not what you imagine when you think of royalty.

Across the road is the Petit Palace, I suppose it was slightly smaller. This was also built in 1900 for the same exposition, I
guess they were feeling particularly creative with the names in 1900. This now houses the Musee des Beaux-Arts, I have discovered that Beaux-Arts in French basically means "random collection of stuff that we couldn't fit anywhere else". That said the building was amazing and as it was free and fairly empty it was a nice way to spend a few hours on a cold spring day.

Inside the Petit Palais was a courtyard which had some cherry blossoms starting to bloom. The building had been designed so you could see the courtyard as you walked past the paintings, which made you feel like you were outside whilst admiring the art.




















Of course it being Paris the gallery had to have an impressionists room, though they went for a different look at this place, I guess they have to try and stand out from the crowd.

I loved this life-size statue of a woman, and yes that is a monkey she has on her leash.
























I hope this last photo gives you some impression of the scale of the building, you really had a sense of space and air as the ceiling was far above you. Initially as I was walking around I was thinking this place must have been hell to heat back in the day when some rich folk owned it, and then I learn that (a) it is fairly recent and (b) no-one ever lived here, so the scale became a little more understandable. That 1900 exhibition must have been one hell of an exhibition though.

Bayeux

I went off to Bayeux on the weekend, it's a town in the Normandy region, almost directly west of Paris, really close to the D-Day landing beaches and famous for it's tapestry (though it is really an embroidery). It was in this town that I saw my first fat French people, I didn't know they existed until I saw them here. The weight distribution in Paris is not even a gaussian, it's more of a delta function centred on the lower side of the healthy weight range, it's enough to give anyone an eating disorder living here. So I was a little bit surprised to see larger French people in Bayeux, and then I tried the food there and it all became clear.

I absolutely gutsed myself on Saturday, the food really was delicious. My starter for lunch (yes I had a three course meal for lunch) was Salade Normande and it consisted of deep-fried camembert, bacon, potato and lettuce all drizzled with olive oil. This was then followed by a pork steak which was literally half the size of my plate covered in what was basically melted camembert. My dessert was a little more reasonable, being a stewed apple with ice cream. Camembert was invented (if that is the right word) in Normandy and so it seems as if it must be incorporated into every dish otherwise you will be banished from the region, or at least have to remove the slogan "cuisine traditionelle" from the restaurant window. Whilst we are on the subject of food I also got to finally eat frog's legs in Bayeux (that was part of Saturday's dinner), which is the picture to the left, a little eated frog. It's very hard to describe tastes, all I can say is that I would eat them again and they had a much better texture to snails. I guess the texture was closest to chicken but the actual meat was much whiter, almost translucent. Now the only really freaky French thing I have to eat is the steak tartare, but that could prove to be too much for me.

Enough about food, on to the town. It was a really pretty little town, at least the old part around the cathedrale was really nice, it got a little more suburban/industrial further out. I was a bit freaked out for a little while there because I thought I saw French people with bad haircuts, that would have really shaken me, fat French and bad haircuts in one day, it looked like the French were starting to lose their style grip. But then I got closer and realised the bad haircuts belonged to either English or eastern European. They were really bad haircuts, it's like a short-back-and sides gone wrong, it looked like these guys had either gone AWOL from the Russian army or thought a particular 1930's German political party was on to something, do they honestly think that looks good?

Anyway back to the town, so Bayeux was the first town to be freed after the allied landings in 1944 and was pretty much untouched by the war, unlike poor Caen up the road which was completely
destroyed after the landings and now looks really ugly. When I
think of Bayeux though I think of the Bayeux tapestry which tells the story of William the Conqueror in a 70m long embroidery. I really wanted to see this tapestry as the only English history I know was from an historical-fiction book I had read about England just before the Norman invasion and the author had got the idea from one particular panel in the Bayeux tapestry. It really blew me away to see this thing in the flesh, it is almost 1000 years old and yet the colours are still really bright, much brighter than any of the actual tapestries I have seen. It is like the world's first comic strip and listening to the audio tape as you walk along the 70m really brings the story alive. Some of the pictures are pretty funny though, at the entrance to the museum is a replica of some of the pictures in the tapestry. There really are little panels where there are people sitting in the boat and then sitting next to them are their horses, very comical.

There was a massive crowd of British school-kids in front of me at the tapestry museum and walking around the town you would ever now and again see more groups of British kids. This must be a right of passage for all the schoolkids in England (at least the southern part) to come over and see the tapestry and the D-Day beaches, lucky bastards.

So no photos could be taken of the tapestry, for obvious reasons, but I made up for that with my thousands of photos I took of the cathedrale in the centre of the town. It's mainly 13th century and walking inside you get the most amazing sense of space and light. Nearly all the big churches I have been in have been pretty gloomy, they never have large windows, I guess because of structural issues, but in this one you couldn't help craning your neck up. It's really hard to capture that sense of openness in a photo so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Once I had taken enough photos of the cathedrale, that took a while, it was off to the war museum and the cemetery. The war museum was alright, but a bit more of a collection of stuff than a coherent story of what was happening and why. They did explain who the main characters were on either side and how the allied landings played out. I really didn't learn any history at school, in fact looking back on it the only thing I can remember actually learning in my combined history/social studies class was that the national day in Canada is called Dominion Day. It's not as if we were spending that time learning Australian history either, we were just seen as a captive audience for my teacher's ravings about the glory of war. Talking about the glories of war, after the war museum it was across the road to the Bayeux war cemetery, these places must be scattered all over France, with the numbers of people who died here during both world wars.

Overall it was a really pretty town and it has the river Aure running through the centre of town, making for some pretty photos. So I'll leave you with a few of the town of Bayeux. The photo below shows one of the few really old houses remaining in Bayeux, check out the overhanging upper floor, with of course the cathedrale in the distance.

























A house alongside the river, this cat didn't need a water bowl, it drank straight out of the river.

















The Aure river, looking away from the town, there were quite a few waterwheels at different houses/restaurants. And finally, the necessary shot of the cathedrale at night.

Snow Drops

I went off to Bayeux this weekend, but before I talk about that I have some photos to show you. My father gave me the mission to try and take some photos of snowdrops for him, it's a type of flower for those who don't know, which blooms in very early spring. That is about all I knew about snowdrops, that it was a type of flower, having grown up in the tropics I'm not even familiar with spring, let along these freaky bulb flowers which only blossom at very particular times of the year. After a little internet research I at least had some idea of what the flower looked like, and so went searching through the Parisian parks to see if I could find one. And though I did discover some really freaky flowers, see the one to left, the only thing that I thought could be a snowdrop was this: and really I think it is a yet-to-bloom daffodil.


















So I thought that either they don't plant snowdrops in Paris, or that they had already bloomed, it had been really hot and from my internet research I discover that in Paris they should have bloomed by Feb 14th and it was now early March. So I kind of gave up on finding any snowdrops, but then I went to Bayeux and what do I find in this random little park on the edge of town, but what I think, could possibly be, snowdrops!! So just ignore the following gratuitous photos of what could be snowdrops, these are for my dad. They were actually a lot smaller than what I was expecting.

French Doctors

Today I had my first, very limited, experience with French doctors, actually I should really say with French doctor's surgeries, as I never got to see the doctor in the end. I'm heading over to Egypt in a few months time and I want to get all the necessary vaccinations before I head over there and as I now have a list of English speaking doctors (health is one thing I don't want to make a mistake with because someone misunderstands my pitiful French) I thought I would give it a go. I should have realised something was up when I rang them to make an appointment and discovered that apparently you don't do that in France, you just turn up and hope for the best. On my list it says you could pay an extra 5 euros to make an appointment, which I was more than happy to do, but the person on the phone wouldn't let me.

I head off to the surgery hoping that it's not too full and find that the actual surgery was in the middle of an apartment complex and you have to be buzzed in, then when you find the surgery you also have to be buzzed in through the front door. You walk through this door and there is just a room filled with people on plastic seats, no receptionist or anything. I have a look around and see that there are already 8 people in front of me and also that this surgery doesn't accept bankcards, and there is no way I have enough cash on me for 3 vaccinations. Once I'd taken all this in and decided not to waste my entire afternoon sitting in one of the more depressing waiting rooms I have ever seen I discover I can't open the door to get back out. So I have to wait until I hear the doctor emerging with his last patient and then race past everyone to try and catch the door before it closes.

I don't understand why people don't make doctor's appointments, where is the possible advantage in just turning up and hoping for the best? I thought we had to wait for ages in Australia, but really if you make an appointment for 12 you know that you should be in by 12:30. Here it is like turning up at 12 for an appointment at 2, except that you don't know that your appointment is at 2, and really it could be any time between 2 and 4 before you see the doctor. And what's the deal with the no bank card thing, I know they use cheques a lot more over here, but really why are people not embracing the bank card, isn't it so much more convenient than a piece of paper you scribble something down on which you then have to take to the bank in one of the very few hours they are open?

After that little escapade I now realise why there are so many pharmacies around the place, it's not that the French are terrible hypochondriacs, as I previously thought, but rather they will do anything to avoid visiting the doctor. I wonder if the pharmacist can do vaccinations?

Look What I Got

I've bitten the bullet and got myself a NaviGo travel pass this week for use on all the public transport in Paris. Up until now I have been using a Carte Orange, which is a paper ticket which I get issued monthly. But the Carte Orange is being phased out and some stations don't allow their use anymore, so I thought I better join the technology revolution and get myself a fancy-pants new travel pass.

I don't know why it took me so long to change, check out the difference between what I have been using and my new NaviGo. Notice that on the back of the NaviGo is a microchip, this thing is more advanced than most Australian bank cards. It is also free, which kind of blew me away, for some reason I was expecting that you would have to pay a deposit for something so fancy. And the tickets all cost the same as my old paper ones did.








Someone was telling me that the transport system hopes to do away completely with paper tickets, but I'm not sure how that would work for tourists? I guess they would have to pay a deposit on their plastic ticket. It's just another way the city can make money off the poor tourists, as there would be a lot who wouldn't return have time to return the card to reclaim their deposit.

Anyway, this is a bit of a boring post, but I was seriously impressed with the transport system over here.