June 18, 2009:
Our tour of France in June, 2009 started in Normandy. We first visited the famous island/fortress of Mont St-Michel, stayed in a wooden treehouses at Le Petit Moulin de Rouvre in Mesnil-Roc’h, toured nearby Dinan, and explored Bayeaux, home of a famous cathedral and the Bayeaux Tapestry. We also toured several battlements, museums, and War Memorials in Normandy.
Mont Sant-Michel has been attracting tourists and pilgrims for centuries (it is the second most visited tourist attraction in France outside of Paris). Thick fortress walls make up its base, above those rises the village. Climb up still further and you’ll reach the pinnacle of the rocky outcrop where the abbey and church loom over the sandbanks below. When the dramatic high tides roll in, the Mont emerges majestically out of the water.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mont St-Michel is set in a bay shared by Normandy and Brittany, and was founded as a religious sanctuary in 708 and in 966 Benedictine monks began work on the abbey. Added to over the centuries, it is an architectural wonder and its natural landscape plays host to a wealth of wildlife.
Mont St-Michel
Church of Mont St-Michel, Abbey Cloisters, Great Window
Crypt of St-Martin, Ossuary Treadwheel, Ramparts
Drive from Mont St-Michel to St-Malo
Just outside Dinan, France, we stayed in a wooden treehouse at the eclectic park Le Petit Moulin de Rouvre in Mesnil-Roc’h. There were common areas with showers, toilets, and dining facilities, but the treehouses were without toilet facilities and plumbing (they had disposable garbage bags).
Le Petit Moulin de Rouvre
Nearby town of Dinan, France
Our next stop was Bayeaux, where we toured the Bayeaux Cathedral, the Bayeaux Crypt, and the famous Bayeaux Tapestry.
Bayeaux Cathedral and Crypt
Bayeaux Waterwheel
The famous Bayeaux Tapestry
Following our visit to Bayeaux, we toured a number of sites devoted to recreating and memorializing the fallen dead in Normandy from the last World War – Caen Memorial Museum, Port Winston Arromanches, German Battlements, an American Military Cemetery, and Omaha Beach.
Caen Memorial Museum
Port Winston – Arromanches
German military batteries
The American Military Cemetery
Omaha Beach – linked the U.S. and British beaches in WWII