Mont Saint-Michel and more about Avranches

Our last cycling day was a big one for a few reasons.  We would be visiting Mont Saint-Michel.  The first time I saw this, on a Rick Steves show, I was totally blown away.  I had to see it and I worked the entire cycling trip around making this happen once we knew we would go to France.   The other cool surprise, learned after booking the trip, was that we'd be on/near a route for the 2013 Tour de France.   There will be a time trial stage from Avranches to Mont Saint-Michel, athough the exact route is not yet published. 

Our map said we would see our first views of MSM when leaving Avranches, still over 20 kms away.  This was from a very steep hill leaving town.  The tiny triangle in the center is Mont Saint-Michel.

After we descended back down to sea level, we took a very quiet road by the marsh.  Again, we were seeing very low tide.  I am skeptical about the existence of high tide.  This road went right by the sheep again.  They really didn't want to have their pictures taken!

We rode, straight into the wind, for what felt like forever.  The 17-18 mile route took a very long time at around 9 mph.  Finally we arrived at the area, which was very touristy.  They have built a large parking lot and offer a free shuttle, although you can walk.  We originally heard bikes were not allowed, but Patrick (the local guide) said they did let you ride on the causeway road with those who chose to walk.  After being battered by the wind for two hours, I thought a shuttle ride sounded nice.   This is the view from the walk between parking lot and shuttle.

I never got a good picture to show what was so cool about this place.  It's a little rock in the middle of nothing, sometimes surrounded by water, with a town built on top with a big Abbey as the cherry.   I think it would be even more awesome to see at night, but Avranches was too far to see that.     I definitely built this up far too much in my mind and it was only okay.  I would recommend staying right in the little area with plenty of hotel options.

A view up at the Abbey.   We were burned out from bad weather, tall flights of steps, and too many churches and opted not to go in.  

 We did have lunch at a hotel on mont.   Our menu included a Normandy Tart for dessert - delicious!

 I had the salmon lasagna, right up my alley.    Bob had a very normal bowl of mussels with frites.

It started to drizzle while we were at lunch, but thankfully stopped when we were getting ready to leave.   We looked at the shops which lined the narrow cobblestone street and all sold the same stuff.  This was probably the most "commercial" thing we did in France.

We commenced our ride back to Avranches with much trepidation.  If I had seen any other way to get ourselves, and our bikes, back to town I would have paid for it.  Fortunately once we got moving, and a little warmed up, it was fine.  We had a really great tailwind for many parts of the ride.  I find that headwinds rarely deliver later as tailwinds, like you think they will, so it was our lucky day. 

Back in town we walked around a bit.  This town was kind of annoying, or maybe I was just ready to go home.  They had some shops I wanted to visit, which had hours until 7pm on Mondays, yet they were all closed by 6:15 when I headed out of the hotel.   Bob took some pictures of the Tour de France marketing.  There were paintings in many business windows like this:

 Also, the bike lane paintings had been updated.  We also saw green and polka dot jerseys.

We were right by "Patton Plaza" and learned about how General Patton liberated Avranches.  There was a big tank, statue and a plaque.

There were few options for dinner, most places were closed.  We settled on a nearby Thai place that was such a good choice!  The owner (who was from Cambodia) spoke very very quiet English and the food was great.  I didn't bring my camera and Bob only got a picture of our appetizers which weren't very exciting to look at.