Day 8: Treasure of Bayeux
Rose: It was a sunny day - hip, hip, hooray!
Thorn: The number of tourists arriving this morning as we were leaving Mont St-Michel was horrendous.
Soothing seagulls and ocean wave noises lulled me to sleep last night; nonetheless, it was an early morning wake-up call so Susan and I could attend the morning prayer service ("lauds") at the abbey. It consisted of monks and nuns singing psalms and doing a few readings. Not only was this a splendid back door European experience, but I loved observing traditional French worship even though I had no idea what they were singing.
Our tour of Mont St-Michel and the abbey, led by Jessica, lasted two hours. It was chock full of information, which got to be a little overwhelming; yet, I learned lots and enjoyed exploring the inside of the abbey. By 11:00 A.M. the tour group began the crowded descent from the abbey to the bus lot. The amount of tourists and field trip kids we had to fight through was staggering, and every single tour member praised Rick Steves for planning our Mont St-Michel visit overnight, thus escaping at least 90% of the tourists!
It was only a short drive to our lunch spot in the town of Villedeu-les-Poêles, where Susan and I enjoyed a baguette sandwich and desserts to celebrate fellow tour members' birthdays! I am getting extremely tired of baguette sandwiches, but it comes with the territory and is all a part of the experience! After our short lunch stop, we were off to Bayeux.
Graeme spoke about Normandy and the Bayeux tapestry as we rode along, and before we knew it, we were at our beautiful hotel - Hotel D'Abourges. A quick orientation walk of Bayeux and its' magnificent cathedral introduced us to the city. Then we visited the Bayeux Tapestry, which was surprisingly interesting for being a thirty minute audio tour of an embroidered cloth. It was astounding that the tapestry was created over one thousand years ago. Wow!
After the tapestry tour, Susan and I ate one of the best dinners of our tour at "Le Garde Manger": a hamburger and fries! It was honestly a great cheeseburger, even better than an American one. We also picked up strawberries and a pastry to enjoy later in the evening. One back door experience and two full stomachs!
Thorn: The number of tourists arriving this morning as we were leaving Mont St-Michel was horrendous.
Soothing seagulls and ocean wave noises lulled me to sleep last night; nonetheless, it was an early morning wake-up call so Susan and I could attend the morning prayer service ("lauds") at the abbey. It consisted of monks and nuns singing psalms and doing a few readings. Not only was this a splendid back door European experience, but I loved observing traditional French worship even though I had no idea what they were singing.
Our tour of Mont St-Michel and the abbey, led by Jessica, lasted two hours. It was chock full of information, which got to be a little overwhelming; yet, I learned lots and enjoyed exploring the inside of the abbey. By 11:00 A.M. the tour group began the crowded descent from the abbey to the bus lot. The amount of tourists and field trip kids we had to fight through was staggering, and every single tour member praised Rick Steves for planning our Mont St-Michel visit overnight, thus escaping at least 90% of the tourists!
It was only a short drive to our lunch spot in the town of Villedeu-les-Poêles, where Susan and I enjoyed a baguette sandwich and desserts to celebrate fellow tour members' birthdays! I am getting extremely tired of baguette sandwiches, but it comes with the territory and is all a part of the experience! After our short lunch stop, we were off to Bayeux.
Graeme spoke about Normandy and the Bayeux tapestry as we rode along, and before we knew it, we were at our beautiful hotel - Hotel D'Abourges. A quick orientation walk of Bayeux and its' magnificent cathedral introduced us to the city. Then we visited the Bayeux Tapestry, which was surprisingly interesting for being a thirty minute audio tour of an embroidered cloth. It was astounding that the tapestry was created over one thousand years ago. Wow!
After the tapestry tour, Susan and I ate one of the best dinners of our tour at "Le Garde Manger": a hamburger and fries! It was honestly a great cheeseburger, even better than an American one. We also picked up strawberries and a pastry to enjoy later in the evening. One back door experience and two full stomachs!