1980 Mont St. Michel (7/17/1980)

Thursday, July 17, 1980

Left the very noisy (snorers, a talking and laughing drunk, and giggling girls including Terry and Kathy) waiting room to sit in the very cold station proper. Finally got our train to Dol which was a very short ride away. We spent the rest of the early morning in the Dol waiting room. Awoke at 08:00 to freshen up in the restroom. We took the 08:25 bus to Pontorson (our Eurailpasses were valid for this trip). Passed through flat farmlands. In Pontorson we were able to catch the 09:50 bus to Mont St. Michel.

Bus ticket for Mont St. Michel

Pretty soon we could see the abbey off in the mist. The road led directly to its base with plenty of parking along the causeway at "sea level."

Kathy and Tamiko on causeway to Mont St. Michel (TAT)

We roamed the very small town which was all hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, and museums. We walked a bit around the walls, and up near the abbey.

Heading uphill (TAT)

Mont St. Michel abbey

Buttress (secret entrance?)

In town (TAT)

We then walked through an archway and found ourselves down at water level on the outside of the walls. There was a narrow "clay" beach along which we walked to a small chapel.

Kathy and Terry on clay beach

Another view of the abbey

We came back and tried to walk around the other side but a tower jutted right out into the water. We returned to the town to buy a large bottle of Coke, and then walked towards the mainland to eat lunch. We saw a herd of sheep and tried to walk around them to take a picture with Mont St. Michel in the background. We had to negotiate some clay ditches and I slipped getting my sandals full of this clay-like substance. We did manage to get the picture.

Sheep

We found some rocks along the causeway on which to eat our lunch of liverwurst on bread.

Postcard of Mont St. Michel

We wandered back to the bus stop and sunned ourselves on the rocks until the 14:20 bus to Pontorson. At Pontorson we took the railroad’s bus to Granville. At the brand new Granville station we tried to get information on getting to Switzerland, since it was obvious that we couldn't make it to the ports for Ireland that evening. The information man could only tell us when the next train to Paris was. So we took the 17:35 train to the Paris Montparnasse station. We passed through rolling farmland like in upstate New York. From Montparnasse, on a guess, we Metro'ed to the Austerlitz station. In the Metro corridors were a couple bands, one Latin rhythm and another with an electric guitar making reverberating music. At the Austerlitz station, there were obviously no trains to Switzerland, so Terry went to try to get information again. They seemed to refuse to understand that all she wanted to know was from which Paris station could we get to Suisse, until I came along to give them a multiple-choice quiz. Finally learned we needed the Lyon station which was just a short walk across the River Seine. We boarded the 23:35 train to Geneva and joined a Long Islander in his compartment.
Next: Genève/Genf/Geneva.