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Day 7: May 31, 2024
Today we took a trip to Mont St Michel, an abbey built on a small rocky island in Normandy, and just under an hour away from St Malo where we are staying. Normally we would take a shuttle bus across the causeway which connects the island to the shore (and the bus park), but today the Olympic Flame was arriving at Mont St Michel in the evening, and during the preparations the shuttle buses were reserved for the staff and those involved or invited to the ceremony! This was not a problem for this fit group though, and we walked to the island, taking photos as we got closer!
When we got to the island we entered the town gate and made our way up the steep street of shops. The Abbey is at the top, and we had been told it was closed today, but we found it was open after all, but was only allowing in adults and children with parents. So the three over 18s (the teachers and Ava (went in to the Abbey, and I took the rest of the rest down through the Abbey gardens and on to the town walls to see the views across the sea, and then back into the main street to do have some free time to do some shopping.
After driving back to St Malo, we had some time for lunch, then met again to explore the Cathedral of St Vincent and the city walls. Thje Cathedral holds the tomd of Jacques Cartier, the famous explorer. While walking round the walls the group had a list of things to find and photograph. When they had finished that activity they had free time until we mewt for dinner in a creperie. Brittany, the area where St Malo is situated, is famous for crepes . There are two kinds - galettes, which are savoury pancakes made from buckwheat flour and crepes, which are sweet, thinner wheat flour pancakes which are eaten for dessert. We had a galette with cheese, egg and smoked bacon in it, and a crepe with a salted butter caramel sauce.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel, but several students then went swimming (!) in the tidal sea water pool on the beach! The teachers went with them, but were strictly observers!