Road Trip Day 3: Mont-Saint-Michel and Dinan, Bretagne

Friday was another full day!  Full of amazing sites.  After a somewhat overpriced breakfast at the hotel during which I tried to get the girls to try all the cheese, no matter how smelly, we set off for the nearby Mont-Saint-Michel.  Even though it was still morning, the tourists were flocking in.  And once we arrived, it was not surprising to see why.  What an amazing place!  We just started climbing, up and up, with no clear direction and when we eventually reached the abbey (I think in English we would also call it a monastery) we started reading Rick Steves self-guided tour notes.  I will just proceed to post a lot of pictures and if you want to know more about this amazing place, click on those links I just put.  My camera battery was still dead at this point, so these pictures were mostly all taken by Judy.

From Mont-Saint-Michel (seriously, read those links, particularly Rick's if you want a short and interesting overview) we carried on to see what we could of Brittany (Bretagne, in French), neighbour to Normandy and home of cider and crepes!!!  Again, if you don't know much about Brittany, know that the Bretons are of Celtic heritage and, take a read of the wiki link there.  Since we still had to make it back to Tours Friday evening, we took the Autoroute most of the way and exited a little before Dinan so to see a little something of Brittany.  The different style of architecture was very evident, particularly in that the buildings seemed made of dark, small stones.  Dinan was gorgeous and there was a lot to see by just wandering around.  The town is surrounded by walls and we walked along the Ramparts for awhile.  (Ramparts was a word we came across more than a couple of times in our journey.)  Again, here are some photos courtesy of my companions.

And of course we had to try out some cider and crepes (galettes).

Mine is the heaping one in the background

It is also important to pay attention to the people around.  These are a couple of pictures I really wanted to take, so thanks once again, Judy!

There was still a three and a half hour drive left to get back to my house for the night.  Yes, a full day indeed.