Another HUGE deep water port leveled in WWII, this time by the Nazis. The town is a long ways from Paris and the other major cities in France so the port is not used for trade, but rather for Cruise ships, ferries and lots of pleasure craft.
This is the stop closest to Normandy and the D-Day beaches, cemeteries, etc. We toured those a few years ago and remember vividly the experience so opted to go to Mont Saint Michel instead, about 2-1/2 hours away. The weather looked pretty gloomy but the Shore Excursion chick assured me it was supposed to break by 10 am so I set off with a light hoodie, leaving rain gear in the cabin. It didn't stop raining the entire day! Again, where's the Weather Channel when you need it?
Normandy is as green and lush as neighboring Brittany. It is the center of horse breeding in this part of the world and is famous for rich dairy products, especially the thick cream from the Normany breed of cows, white with brown spots around the eyes that make the creatures all look like they're wearing sunglasses, white cattle and shaggy sheep with black legs and faces. Although the drive was long, there were only 20 of us on the bus so we got to spread out and enjoy the scenery. Away from Cherbourg, the farm and village buildings are much older, made of stone with steep roofs to drain the rain. Rolling hills of picturesque green meadows. Beautiful.
Thirty minutes or so before we actually arrived there, suddenly MSM loomed in the distance. It is so distinctive - pyramid-shaped rising 80 meters above the sandy shore. Where once it was marooned at high tide now a series of locks controls the water flow of the tides which can be very extreme this far north.
Once upon a time visitors could drive up to the entrance but now that is also carefully controlled. There are car parks quite a distance from the Abbey. From there you walk a good half mile to the shuttle station and get jammed into a vehicle that looks like a subway car on wheels. It drives across a causeway and for some reason that only the French can understand the shuttle stops another half mile from the Abbey entrance and out you go to finish the approach. Nathalie told us so much about the history of the Abbey what she didn't tell us was that to reach it we got to climb 300+ high stone steps in the rain. Sometimes the passage was so narrow we had to turn sideways and then the stairs would be circular and then suddenly wide, usually with no banister. We'd hang on to the stone walls, suck more wind and carry on.
It's one of those "How did they ever build this a thousand years ago?" places. Long ago 65 monks lived there, dedicating their lives to copying the Bible in elaborate, bejeweled illustrated manuscripts, taking four years to complete just one copy. Along the way it was also a prison, a celestial Alcatraz. Now there are a dozen sisters and monks in residence plus another ten people in the village at the base of the island. It's a chaotic jumble of hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops lining a cobblestone "street" not even ten feet wide crowded with tourists from all over the world, shoulder to shoulder, attempting to make the climb or maybe settle for half way (it's a maze of twists and turns, all made of stone and always up, up, up.)
We did make it to the church at the top, a mixture of different styles depending on when each section was constructed. The refrectory adjoins the church, with more chapels and rooms below. We climbed up this staircase and down that and then around another bend and still there was more. We descended to the village on the "easy" route, enjoying the odd pocket garden along the way. According to my iPhone I climbed 24 flights of stairs that day. I believe it! When we got back to the ship we each popped a couple of Aleve and then you-better-believe-we-took-the-elevator up to the Crow's Nest in time to watch our departure and take advantage of Happy Hour, buy one get the second for two dollars! If ever there was a medicinal cocktail.....
Normally we would shower and change for dinner in the dining room, but we were pooped little sailors, so managed the one flight down to the Lido deck for the casual buffet. It happened to be Indonesian Night--the tables were dressed with batik clothes, the serving staff was dressed in more batiks and the chefs had prepared dozens of Indonesian dishes. I asked one to select what he thought I should try which delighted him. I have no idea what it all was but it was delicious! We finished in time for the early show so we waddled down to the theater and oh, no, the performer was a mime magician. Oh, well, we were seated and not climbing stairs so how bad could it be. Surprisingly the guy was very entertaining even though never uttering a word. So whadaya know, two checks on the bucket list this day: Mont Saint Michel AND a mime magician!
No comments:
Post a Comment