To begin our tour of Mont Saint-Michel and Normandy, we rented a car in Caen and started our drive through the French countryside. Very picturesque journey through the Vire River Valley on our way to Mont Saint-Michel.
Stopped in Vire for a quick tour around the old town including an old clock tower museum. Vire was almost completely destroyed during World War II by Allied bombings in support of the D-Day invasion and the small display in the clock tower provided some very personal stories about the cost of liberating France in 1944. It took decades to rebuild what was obliterated in a matter of hours, but Vire is now once again a charming town to visit.
Arrived at our quaint farmhouse B&B in Sains in the late afternoon. We visited the goats and sheep on the farm, and then headed out for dinner.
The following morning, we drove to the Mont Saint-Michel parking lot and took the shuttle across the causeway. The cooler weather and occasional drizzle just added to the the atmosphere. A tour of the church crowning the Mont and the cloister, refectory and the passages beneath the church gave us an appreciation for this 100-year-old site that went from an abbey to a prison and then to its current status as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We spent the late afternoon on the town of Dinan, seeing the half-timbered houses and sights of the old city, then back to Sains for another delicious dinner.
The next morning we left for a more sombre visit to the beaches of Normandy, site of the D-Day invasion of nearly 80 years ago. While the sandy beaches today give no hint of the past, the remaining gun emplacements, bunkers, and remnants of the Mulberry harbours are evidence of the WW II battle that took place there. We spent a considerable amount of time at the Juno Beach Centre at the site where Canadian troops landed on D-Day.
We took the coastal route back to Caen, where we dropped off our rental car and then hopped on a local train to the charming town of Bayeux.
Listen to the sounds of the gulls circling Mont Saint-Michel while viewing our photos by clicking on the YouTube link.
See a selection of our pics from Mont Saint-Michel and the Normandy beaches on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/albums/72177720310016649
