One of the things that strikes you when travelling through the parts of France that aren't Paris is the lack of people. I suppose the cities are exceptions and you do get the odd crowd at some of the famous tourist spots, but otherwise the place often seems almost deserted. It is especially noticeable in the countryside when you pass village after village without seeing a soul. It's actually very pleasant. But where do 66 million people go?
Today we found a good few of them all trying to visit Mont St Michel at the same time as we were. It was a real lesson in crowds - a 1 hour traffic jam just getting into the car park, a long walk from the car to the shuttle bus, and then into the melee.
But the Mont St Michel is well worth a visit. It all started with Bishop Aubert's vision in 708AD and there were intense periods of construction during the 10th and 14th centuries, with of course many additions and changes in betweeen times as well. In fact renovations are still going on today.
We took a guided tour of the abbey (the top bit) and learned a lot about the building and how it was used back in the day.
There was so much walking that J developed a new injury - sore shin - but lets hope this one is short lived.
The Mont is built on a tidal 'island' and is surrounded by water when the tide is in. Surrounded that is except for the relatively recent dry causeway that provides dry access at almost all times. The tide goes out a very long way (up to 15km), and the tidal range is very large (up to 15m.) There's actually a lot more to it - more I can attempt to cover here. However, the tidal access was historically important to the site as protection from attack.
I'm afraid there were no trains, but there was the shuttle bus that went up and down the straight road between the mainland and the Mont. The shuttles have been built with a driving cab at both ends so they do not need to be turned around between journeys. They tended to travel in groups of 2 or 3. Maybe they could be joined together like a train? Moving the thousands of people back and forward across the 1-2km gap does seem ideal for a small train. The buses are somehow ho-hum in comparison as we have got used to high quality infrastructure here in this civilised part of the world.
Tonight we are at St Malo, a superbly interesting little walled town. The views from the walls are fantastic and there is a real buzz from all the people in town on holiday (Wed & Thurs here are holidays and many seem to be making an extra long weekend out of them.) We've only been here a few hours but already wishing we could stay another day. St Malo is a ferry port for several English destinations as well as the channel islands. Too bad we don't have time for a quick visit.
P
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