Mud and Cookies: Food

Mont Saint Michel is famous for several specialties.

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Mère Poulard Galettes. These butter cookies are flat round discs about an inch-and-a-half in diameter. For better prices, Sabrina took us to a factory just before we reached the island: Biscuiterie du Mont Saint Michel, SNC St Aubert, 50170 Ardevon. Tel:  02 33 60 59 48.

Caramel d'Isigny.  Individually-wrapped caramel candies, which we also bought from the same shop. As an aside, Disney's family came from the Isigny (d'Isigny), which may be the origin of the Disney name.

Omelette de la Mère Poulard. This fluffly omelette has a skin similar to a fried egg with a creamy egg filling. Sold everywhere at outrageous prices. Anthony tasted it at Restaurant du Guesclin as part of 18 Euro fixed-priced meal. The restaurant was recommended by Sabrina.

Agneau de Pré-Salé. Salt-marsh lamb refers to sheep that's fed off the grass that grow in the salty marshes around the island.  The so-called distinctive flavor had very little lamb taste and was fairly bland. Or maybe it was the sauce. Also sold everywhere at outrageous prices, though I ate mine as a fixed-price option at the Guesclin.

Mud and Cookies: The Island

October 25: The rocky island rose like a fairy settlement in the middle of mudflats during low tide. At high tide, water cut Mont Saint Michel from the mainland, allowing access only through the causeway. The lower parking lot often got flooded when the water was high, so Sabrina parked the shuttle van at the higher one. She stayed with the vehicle, leaving us about three hours to explore.

Think Lord of the Rings or any medieval fantasy.  The settlement began with a ring of sand-colored houses at the bottom, continued up to fortress walls and topped off with an abbey and church spire. Any roads were narrow and sloping, while staircases connected various levels. Sabrina showed us a secret entrance, where we escaped the tourist hordes while climbing to the top.

Though people settled on this outcrop as early as the fifth century A.D., the abbey began in the 11th century in the Romanesque style. Though Gothic additions came later, they dominated the interior with vaulted ceilings and pointed-arch windows.  Unless you have a guide book, grab the multi-lingual audio guide, which costs extra over admission. Otherwise, the giant fireplaces, restful cloister and spacious stone rooms will be puzzles since no explanatory labels exist.

With the exploration of the abbey and a quick lunch, three hours proved to be inadequate for exploring the island. We had no time to wander the town or explore any of the museums. Still I'm glad we left at 1 P.M. The daytrippers from Paris were just arriving, and threatening to clog the narrow passages with humanity.

Before we returned, Sabrina asked us if we could stop for gas on the highway, since it was hard to find in Bayeux. Since we had no other plans that day, we said yes. She must've spent at least half-an-hour in line at a rest-stop station with multiple pumps -- most them were dry because of the French strike. Fortunately, the van was diesel since those pumps were the only ones working. As for us, we spent most of the time wandering the shops and cafes of the rest-stop.

Mud and Cookies: Introduction

Not a good idea.

October 25: "Stay away from the mud!" Our driver, Sabrina warned. "There's quicksand and the tide can come in too fast for you. All French schoolkids learn that and yet they had to rescue two French tourists last month because they were trapped there."

Even the Bayeux tapestry showed hapless horses and knights trapped in the mud almost 2,000 years ago.

Sabrina was taking us to Mont Saint Michel via the Hotel Churchill shuttle van. Though she offered color commentary on the sights, she did not have official tourist training, so could only be called a driver, not a guide. She used to work in her husband's architecture office but was laid-off when the French economy soured.

The round-trip cost 55 Euros per person. It saved a lot of time and aggravation in taking public transportation, which was now intolerable because of the French strike against raising the pension age. Because we were the only two on the eight-person van, it felt like a private tour.  The hotel had earlier asked to move our trip to a different day, since it was not cost effective to drive just two people because of the gas prices and strike shortages. When we couldn't, they went on with the trip since we had reserved so far in advance.