mont saint michel

We arrived at Mont Saint Michel, another UNESCO World Heritage site, a little before 16:00, to get to the cathedral you need to climb up 190 stairs (I think).

Even if you make it up to the cathedral, there are many areas through out where there are stairs, so you are constantly climbing up and down.

We were happy that the sun was shining, as the weather forecast had predicted rain.

The garden area on the upper area of the cathedral was beautiful.

One thing we learned is that they are building a monorail to get from the mainland to Mont Saint Michel. I think this is to limit the amount of cars travelling to the island and also to make the island truly "an island".

I know it is to preserve the area, but somehow it seems a bit too "commercial" to me. If you want to see Mont Saint Michel "au naturel", go soon!

After all that step climbing, we were definitely ready for dinner.

Satoshi tried the cidre (cider) which is made of apples, a popular item in the area.

If you are envisioning a sweet apple cider, you will be very disappointed, this is close to a sour beer.

Dinner started with a vegetable soup, a piece of sea bass with a butter sauce on a bed of carrots, zucchini and maybe some parsnips.

Dessert was a chocolate cake that was supposed to be molten but came out awhile after it had come out of the oven.

After dinner we went out to take one more look at Mont Saint Michel at dusk.

It was so windy and cold that we wanted to take a warm bath to break the chill but the hot water in our building had run out.

I ended up taking a very quick "cold" bath then tried warming up with the hair dryer.

The bummer part of this was that the front had closed for the night.

I remembered someone blogging about having water tanks in France, so if a lot of people use the showers at the same time, the hot water runs out quickly.

Other than that and all the stair climbing, it was a fabulous day.

The next day, breakfast was an assortment of charcuterie, and an introduction to tomme noire (a uncooked, half-pressed cheese which is salted then covered with a black wax film), and saint paulin (a semi-soft cow's milk cheese similar to havarti) cheeses. To drink Dammann Freres' Ceylon tea.

After more exploring of the island, we checked out and had lunch at a hotel restaurant just off of Mont Saint Michel called La Digue.

They serve the fluffy "omelette" called the Mont Saint Michel omelette. Apparently it is similar to the one served at La Mere Poulard which I think is called La Mere Poulard omelette, but this one is just a little more reasonably priced.

We arrived there a little early than our reservation (10 minutes) and the staff were not too happy as they were in the midst of their family meal and chatting.

One waitress was so not paying attention to what she was doing that she knocked over Satoshi's glass of wine which came flying across the table and onto my coat...luckily it was a rosé, can you imagine if it were rouge (red)?!

No apologies and all she did was give me napkins so that I could wipe up my place for her to put my food down on...eep!

Anyway, the omelette was more like eating a foamy bisque. We also had some roast chicken, another omelette of sorts and some potatoes. Dessert was a piece of apple tarte.

Would I order this omelette again? Probably not, but at least we tried it.

I have a little video of the guys whipping the eggs at La Mere Poulard for the "omelette". Just click on the link here.

After lunch we were off to Honfleur, but I'll continue with that tomorrow so stay tuned...

La Mere Poulard
Grande Rue - BP18
50170 Le Mont Saint Michel, France
Phone: 02.33.89.68.68

La Digue
BP 18
50170 Le Mont Saint Michel, France
Phone: 02.33.60.14.02