Last big excursion

We haven't even seen the Tapestry yet but no one should worry.  As long as the weather in Normandy continues its fantastic run we headed out for one more thing where we knew we would have to be outdoors.

Mont Saint Michel.

The abbey on an island is a victim of its own success.  The causeway that they built to allow tourists access at any stage of tide has caused a change in the current which has reduced the scouring effect of the water.  The silt is building up and the abbey is now very much a peninsula.

But they are working on fixing that.  A bridge is being built and the causeway will be removed.  The project also includes remote parking and a free shuttle from a "village" on the mainland.

Are we all feeling good and Disney yet?

But Disney it isn't, people actually live in the village over there and the nuns walking down the steps outside the abbey are actual persons of faith, not actresses.  People actually live there.

Even if you lived on an island you needed a stone wall to protect your family from the pirates.  Walking along the ramparts is much superior to battling the crowds in the street.

You meet a better class of people.

And you get a better view of the bay.

That's pretty close to high tide.

The guidebook said it was well worth a visit but that a short visit would be sufficient.

We agree on both counts.

This is a view of the crowd in the only street in the village as we prepared to leave town.

Here's today's war content.  This giant cannon just inside the gate is described on that plaque behind the FT as "Bombarde Anglaise, Abandonnes par L'Armee de Thomas Scalles, Le 17 June 1434, Calibre 380-420".

So that's pretty old.

We were on our way just as a giant slew of tour buses began pulling into the "village".  As crowded as it was on the island while we were there it was about to get a whole lot worse.

We made our way back to Bayeux.

We checked out of the B&B this morning and have checked into a real hotel.

We were out walking in town before dinner when today's bicycle content just cruised by in front of us, a group ride.

There is an extremely pretty little river in the old town.  The sun angle wasn't right this evening but it is still very pretty.

After dinner we ended up back inside the Cathedral.  This one is the size of Notre Dame de Paris but in Paris if you are inside the building anytime after about 10am you are in there with a couple of thousand people.  We were inside Notre Dame de Bayeux with maybe a dozen others.

They have some softly playing recorded music and incense burning on the altar.  It is serene and powerful.  The FT discovered that the church crypte was open.  In French churches the crypte is just the basement but sometimes there are amazing things down there.  Wireless and I visited the crypte at Chartres, the FT and I visited the crypte at Bayeux.

It was very dark down there, even with the miraculous light gathering power of a really good modern electronic camera there was a quite obvious and prolonged pause between the sound indicating the "shutter" was open and the sound indicating that the sensor had stopped gathering information.  But the picture is still acceptable.  I must have stood very still.

Today the Tapestry and whatever else is yielded by a walk around town.