One of the very few places i had planned to go to was Mont St Michel – I had visited it previously in 2018, when funnily enough history repeated itself with a sudden down pour. I have yet to visit St Michaels Mount in cornwall which is the virtual twin – what I was not aware of was a third called Sacra di San Michele in Italy! Cheers to my friend Stephen for that. Anyway, the original plan was to stay in Pontersan, then to cycle on the electric bikes along the river path to Mont St Michel. However Jo was not keen on this – not just the cycling, but the wrong side of the road so – we took Ziggy.

Mont St Michel is the second most popular tourist attraction in France – the only thing being better is the copy of Blackpool Tower in Paris. I was impressed with the way the parking works for the site – there’s a designated large car park which is well organised – and there is a specific place for Motorhomes; once parked, walk down to the bus terminus where a shuttle bus – and they go very regularly – takes you to the concourse in front of the Isle.

The tide was out when we arrived – and it was easy to see how people in the past had walked across the sands to the isle – indeed we could see groups out doing exactly that.

The entrance to the isle is imposing, and once through the main entrance – and the isle itself is free – it costs to go into the Abbey – there is a small courtyard befor a second gate, drawbridge and portcullis – there was also a healthy line for the toilets for which there was a charge – top tip – there are free ones less than 75 metres along the lane!

The lane that leads up to the Abbey its self has a fair slope on it; its full of shops, small bars, restaurants and multiple ways for Johnny Foreigner to get scalped and seperated from their money – there was even a hotel – I dread to think on the costs! In many ways it reminded me of the Shambles in York. Tucked away along the route were several interesting buildings, statues and some very friendly seagulls!

Me being me, we were there early – so it was not to crowded, but when were were leaving later – its was packed. On our way up we had stopped at the tourism office and bought tickets to go into the Abbey – this saved time when we got to it, as the queue was quite long – with tickets we went straight through. walking up and around to the open area overlooking the bay we came across some stunning architecture, views and one of the stars of the Paris Olympics – Zeus.

Going into the abbey was a series of rooms, areas, spaces as well as the church – i noted three wonderful art installations – one was a fantastic model of the moon – floating ethereally over the congregation, and the second one of a lot of magazines, painted blue that though static, game the impression of moving water / the sea – also, there was a soundtrack of the word water in many languages that gave the sound of the sea – somewhat mesmerising. Finally in the cloister – a simple polished sphere that reflected light.

We decided that we had had enough culture, and pausing only to chat with a seagull, headed down and out to pick up a shuttle bus. When i had visited before, in 2018, several weeks of heatwave came to a dramatic end with a huge rain storm – guess what – same again! what made it worse was as we waited for the bus, our driver couldn’t get it to go – so we were totally soaked as the driver tried to fix it – hence the drowned rat picture!

We headed back to Ziggy, and then back to the campsite at Pontersan. The restaurant we had eaten in on the previous night was close – it being Sunday, so we went for a walk into the town and ended up in a lovely Crepe restaurant. I saw with deep joy that they had cidre and for the first time we ate Crepe – Jo having a smoked haddock, i went for local sausage with a camembert sauce. (We are so going to have to have a diet when we get back – we ate and drank very well!). This was our last night in France, and the following day was going to be long – i wanted to go through the Normandy Beaches and we had been recommended to go to the Pegasus Bridge Museum – and then to Caen to catch the over night ferry.