17/6/12

First and foremost: Happy Father's Day!!! I hope your day was fantastic Dad and Pa and Poppy! Sorry I couldn't be there to spend it with you but I will try and make it up later.

Today was a long day. After getting up at 7, we rode a bus to Mont-Saint-Michel. It was so nice. Bright sun and a slight breeze-amazing. Oh yea, Mont-Saint-Michel was UNBELIEVABLE! This is where I spend the morning and beginning part of the afternoon:

So I mean I couldn't really complain from the start. After taking the trip from the bottom to the top (a ton of stairs), we could see miles into Brittany and Normandy: As seen here--

A fact I assume you are unaware of is: you see the sandy part? Well that gets inundated during high tide. So basically this Mountain village/castle/abbey turns into a private island every other day or so. In one of the rooms on the top, since it is always cold in there, the monks used to use it as a morgue. I am sure you are wondering why monks need a morgue, as XVII century medicine was not really up to the standards of now. Well, they used to chuck their dead buddies in there to keep them chilled (I mean no one likes stinky dead) for two days. After two days, the deceased monk's best monk buddy would go in and BITE THEIR BIG TOE just to "make sure."

This makes me think of two things that are shocking:

1. They screwed up pronouncing their dead, obviously more than once because they made a routine to combat it and more importantly
2. Biting the big toe of a person is the most efficient and best way to check if a cold, listless body that has been lying on the ground of a cold room is actually "just playing."

After a quick piece of bread (a common thread for my entire trip), we boarded the bus for St. Malo. It was a beautiful, walled-in community complete with church, beaches, and a Lacoste. We didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked, but basically it was the stereotypical French city. It had gorgeous houses across set in the hills overlooking the sea and sailboats everywhere. The streets were cobblestone and all of the city was destroyed during the war... so they have done work in the past 70 years. 

Well I tried uploading a picture but it was being a meany. Mez, I was going to upload a picture of an organ (I have tried taking a picture and getting information about all the ones I have seen. So far it's not working as well as I anticipated so I am sorry. I did hear someone play today. I didn't like his crescendo and I thought the song was too dark for the opening song for mass. But the organ sounded sooo pretty.) and more importantly, a cat. so I apologize for that. Take my word that St. Malo was beautiful though.

Ok, well again, Happy Father's Day Dad, Pa and Poppy!! I love and miss you guys!!