In the planning for this little family venture, my main concern would be this morning's departure from Paris: after seeing how much stuff everybody had brought with them, I was not sure it would all fit in the car I had arranged to rent. I was partly right . . . by ditching an old suitcase (as expected), we were able to cram uncomfortably into the little Peugeot 206. I think this car is designed for four people with two bags, or something like that. We had five with about five.
Somebody (I won't metnion who here) forgot something back at the apartment, so we had to turn around after getting on the freeway. This is only notable because it was my first serious driving experience in Paris, which included one of these quasi-roundabouts that is more like a massive square (10+ lanes of traffic from each direction) where some are going in a circle and some (like us) are cutting across. The bus driver that passed inches from our front bumper was pretty impressive.
Chartres was a great place to stop for lunch. I might have mentioned this before, but don't eat in the big cities; even though a place like Chartres is wel-touristed (though not in this season, of course), good food seems much easier to find. We also squeezed in a tour of the large frankencathedral and its blue stained glass.
Our target for the night was Mont Saint Michel, a medieval town built on a hill in the middle of tidal flats. It is surrounded by water at high tide (a great tactical advantage; it did not fall to the Brits even though the rest of the surrounding countryside did) and has been recommended by almost eveyone who's been there as a top place to visit in France.
We would not be disappointed. We arrived at sunset, too late to really tour around, but we did get a good look from the outside.
There are a number of hotels on the mainland-side of the causeway (and some right on the Mont, though they are a bit fancy), closed during this low season. But there are great bed and breakfast places all around, and we found one where the rooms had an uninterrupted view of the Mont.
Dinner was had at a small local restaurant, one of the few open. I'll try to track down the name . . . the food was excellent, regional stuff including seafood stew and other tasty stuff.
Posted by warcode at December 16, 2003 10:49 PM