Incredible, that's all I can say

Mar. 3/07

We got up early to catch the bus to Mont St Michel. We'd planned to leave our bags at the train station, because we'd be catching the 16.28 train to Nantes and parts south later that day (yes, this is important later in the story). As we walked to the train station, we heard a cry of "Hey, Canada". Yup, it was more Canadians. They had just been to the train station, to find it was not open yet (It was Sunday, in small town France). But they had permission from the hotelkeeper to keep their room for bags until their train at 17.12 (yes, also important). They let us put our bags in with thiers, and we all jumped onto the bus out to the island. During the 20 min bus ride, we talked a found out that Janet and Dave were from Ontario, and Janet also worked in museums. We spent the whole day talking about museums and work and school and left Bridgette and Dave to their own discussions.

Mont St Michel was so much more than I thought it was. It used to be an island in the sea, upon which had been built a temple, then a church, then an abbey...etc, etc. Now it was connected with a causeway, and the lower parts of the island were covered with a small village that wound its way up the slopes of the rock to a massive church on the top. The rock matched in colour of all the houses, fortafications and the church, so it seemed like it grew out of the rock itself.

As we walked towards the top of the mont, we were drawn to a museum that was on the side of the road. Ok, Janet and I were drawn and we dragged Bridgette and Dave after us. The admission for the 4 museums in town was 15euro...but a bit of bargining brought the price down to 9euro and we decided that was a good price. The first musuem dealt with the ocean and the effects of the causeway and the tides on the surrounding countryside. Becuase of the causeway, the sand deposits had been building up over the years and the salt marshes were getting closer to the base of the island. The 2nd musuem was a sound and light show about the architecture of the island, the 3rd museum discussed knights, dungeons, monks...and fossils (not sure about that connection). It had an odd wax museum in it. And finally there was the historic house of one of the knights of the king, from the 15th C. It was an interesting review of the different interpretation techniques available, though they were used in interesting ways. Janet and I analyzed and cringed at a lot of the displays, specifically the "Do Not Touch" sign TACKED to a 14th C chair. Yes, TACKED into the wood. It was very hard not to cringe.

After viewing all the museums, and looking at the church (it was expensive to get in, so we just looked at the outside) we sat and talked for a few hours. The bus left at 4:00 to get us back for the 4:28 train (so we thought.) Janet and Dave were supposed to be taking the same train, but they had tickets saying the train was at 5:12. Hmmm, odd. It wasn't a concern until we found out the bus left at 4:10 from Mont St Michel to go back to Pontorson. Yup, do the math. 4:10 plus 20mins makes it 4:30...and if the train left at 4:28, we were in big trouble. So, we made a plan...as soon as the bus stopped (luckly, only 1 block from the train), Bridge would RUN to the train station and try to stall it. We would race to the hotel (1 block in the other direction) and grab the bags and race back. The bus stopped and we elbowed an old woman out of the way (gently) and took off in opposite directions. The hotelkeeper had moved our bags out of our room and left them outside the main door...we didn't have time to be upset about him moving our bags, cause we had to get back to the train station. I ran as fast as I could, carrying two bags (mine and Brigette's) and we got to the train station with seconds to spare. But there was no train. It was at 5:12, because of construction on the track. So, we were able to get food for the train ride, and relax and chat a bit before getting onto our train.

In Rennes, we said goodbye to Janet and Dave, and took another train to Nantes, and then a 3rd one to Bordeaux. We arrived at 1:30am, and had a choice of finding a local hostel, or sleeping at the train station until 6:30 when the next train left for Hayrune (the boarder with Spain). We slept at the staion. The next morning, we kept moving, and after a few more transferes, and a bus, we arrived in Bilbao in the early afternoon. It was a very long trip, but a beautiful city.