Celebrating 1,000 Years on Mont St. Michel

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By Norma Hopcraft

Mont St. Michel celebrates 1,000 years this year. Which is strange because parts of it are far older than that. 

I have a brochure in my hand that says the history of the island is thought to date to 708 when a bishop had a sanctuary built on the mount in honor of the Archangel Michael. 

It became a major pilgrimage site. In the 900s, the Benedictines settled on the Mont.

So don't ask me why France is celebrating 1,000 years this year. But they are, and the official celebrations began the day we left in July and continued into August. We escaped before a giant wave of tourists.

But why quibble about a few hundred years? The Mont is spectacular, rising from an absolutely flat tidal plain. It has areas of quicksand, which doesn't stop people from walking around on the tidal plain. It usually gets just a few feet of water at high tide.

We spent one night (got a fantastic price from Bookings.com) so we could have the island to ourselves early in the morning. 

We were there in early July, very soon after the solstice, and it was light out until 11:30 p.m. The seagulls of the island made a racket until nearly midnight and started up again with sunrise. They must be exhausted in summertime.

During the Hundred Years War, the fortifications of Mont-Saint-Michel resisted all British assaults and therefore the Mount has become a national symbol of identify.

Only a handful of people live full-time on the Mont, which gets overrun with tourists--like me. One of the residents said the whole world is there and it's very isolating.

A view from the ramparts.

Ancient stone walls and thriving plants.

A picturesque door, steps, and set of lions to guard it all.

A shot taken from near the steps to the Abbey.

This fellow landed next to me on the North Tower.

Incredibly old, hundreds and hundreds of years, and so beautiful.

The view out my hotel window. This is a residence -- I watched the owners go out for dinner.

The Abbey high above the houses and businesses.

A perfect window.

I got up early in the morning, before the buses with tourists arrived, and explored. Up one path or staircase, and down another. It was sublime.

The Mont's namesake, the Archangel Michael.

Knights in shining armor are another popular theme here.

A view of the bay at sunrise, above the North Tower.

The wash of colors in sky and sea was stunning all day long.

The agapanthus were stunning in Normandy and Brittany.

Another unexpected visitor.

The Abbey at the top of Mt. St. Michel. The straight line you see descending on the left is the track where supplies were once lifted into the abbey.

Just something picturesque.

The cloister in the Abbey, which is still inhabited today with Benedictine nuns and monks. 

One of the Abbey's doors.

During the French Revolution, 5 prisoners walked inside this wheel to bring supplies up the track into the Abbey, which was used as a prison.

From Mt. St. Michel we proceeded to Dinan. What a hoot that was! Wait 'til you see! Comment below, if you please, to boost me in the search engine. Thank you!

 

Bayeux Is a Special Place in Normandy

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By Norma Hopcraft

Bayeux in Normandy is a neat town. It's the home of the famous Bayeux tapestry, a 210-foot-long linen scroll. It's embroidered with scenes from the 1066 Norman invasion of England. You can see pictures of it here. 

As a person who has done a lot of needlework in her life, I recognize a work of art and a testament to women's craft. I attribute it to women's artistic achievement because historians think women made it--evidence indicates that only women in medieval England embroidered, according to BBC History Magazine. More info here. 

Bayeux is also the home of the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Bayeux, consecrated on 14 July 1077 in the presence of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, and his wife Matilda. All that survives from the construction of this period is the crypt, the towers at the western end and the first level of the nave.

It's lovely. It's one of the few cathedrals I will trouble you with. 

The town of Bayeux itself is picturesque. It has a river running through it. 

The houses along the river have water doors leading to their gardens.

Isn't this the perfect window?

The roofline of Bayeux. 

It's worth a visit, especially coupled with a side trip to the nearby Normandy invasion museums and sites. My experience in these historic places is here. 

 

Respect and Gratitude at the Normandy Beaches

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 by Norma Hopcraft

While we stayed in Bayeux (see previous post for photos of the hostel / convent we stayed in), we visited the Normandy beaches.

I've wanted all my life to see this place where freedom vs. slavery of the world was contested. I've always wanted to pay my respects at the American cemetery. So many young men died on D-Day. There are 12,000 Americans buried in the American cemetery, and there are British and Canadian and Aussie and New Zealander graves in other burial grounds in Normandy. There's a huge German cemetery too.

So many stories of heroic leadership were written that day.

And so many young men died.

The day we visited was a somber day though the sun was shining relentlessly.

This is Pointe du Hoc, a 100-foot cliff and the highest point between Omaha and Utah Beaches. During World War II it was fortified by the Germans and believed to be impossible to breach. There are a number of German bunkers still embedded in the hillside. There are also huge craters where American bombs fell. The craters are now full of wildflowers.

The Pointe was full of people, all respectfully quiet and serious. Many young people were there with tour guides telling them about D-Day, and about all that was at stake that day. It was gratifying to see their serious interest in history. May we never have to repeat a day like that one.

The barbed wire has been there more than 80 years.

From Pointe du Hoc you can look east toward Omaha Beach.

Can you see the windsurfer in the center of the picture, just beyond the wall of the American Cemetery?

All these young men fought and died so we'd be free to do things like windsurf 

instead of slaving in Nazi mines. 

And free to vote.

The number of crosses is overwhelming.

A Dream Come True -- to Be in France

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 By Norma Hopcraft

At long last, some photos from France, as I promised! After 15 hours of travel, my sister Chris and I took one day to adjust to jet lag in Maisons-Laffitte, where my friend Carol's house is, the one I'm housesitting in. After a nap, we walked into town and enjoyed the shops.

    

"How can you govern a country with 400 kinds of cheese?" Charles de Gaulle once 

lamented. Here is a typical sampling.

Then we took a train to meet our French friend Martine and her little Himalayan Mountain Dog, Tibou (which means morsel in French argot) in Rouen. From there we went around Normandy and Brittany in Martine's car.

We had a very good time!

Let's start in Rouen today, and then head to Normandy.

First, meet Martine, my landlady when I lived in Paris for a year. She's an actress, and this is a photo of her that she gave me 10 years ago:

Next, here's Tibou -- or rather, here's a Shih-Tzu, a type of Himalayan mountain dog, also known as a cat-dog (because they're so independent by nature). You'll see a picture of the real Tibou later in this series.

Now, let's go to Rouen, which has an elaborate, ornate cathedral that Monet spent a year on, striving to capture an impression of its appearance in all kinds of weather, every season, all times of the day. He made more than 30 paintings of this cathedral.

When you look closely at the details, the ornateness of the entire cathedral becomes even more overwhelming.

Here's one decorative column on one side of one doorway, surrounded by stone 

cut so fine as to look like lace.

Here's the arch over the doorway. Sculptors carved the stone 

on nearly every inch of this cathedral.

The Cathedral at Rouen is so very elaborate, it's actually not to my taste, if I may be so bold to say. It's "over the top." You'll see more over-the-topness when we get to the opera house designed by Garnier.

That same evening we drove 90 minutes to Bayeux, where we wanted to see the 1,000-year-old Bayeux tapestry and the Normandy beaches the next day. We stayed in a hostel, to cut costs of course, but then the hostel magic I hoped for actually happened--I met a woman who lives in Rochester! She told me all kinds of fascinating things about my adopted city.  Here's the hostel where we met -- it's in a former convent.

The front gate to the building, from the 17th century, I believe.

The front door.

The wing where I slept, upstairs.

The accommodations were spare -- we made our own beds and the showers, sinks, and toilets were down the hall -- but the place had an abiding peace and grew on me over the two nights we stayed there.

Next post: Bayeux, the Normandy beaches, and the American Cemetery.

See my recent photos of Rochester immediately below this post.