Trip to Mont St. Michel, France

By now we had seen most of museums/churches in and around Paris and we were on look out for a place which is not a museum or church but should something out of Wonderland.

We heard of Mont St. Michel, heard it is small island with a castle constructed in the middle covering most of Island. The Island is separated from the mainland by approximately 1 km which is covered by water 12 hours a day during the High Tide. Island is about 1 km in diameter and about 70-80 meter jutting above the ocean.

Mont St. Michel is on the north coast of France, near the border of Brittany and Normandy. It is around 320 kms west of Paris.

We decided to visit this magnificent structure and Planned for a weekend trip during first week of April. We booked tickets to Mont St. Michel and reserved a family room at Avranches, a small French village 15 kms away from Mont St. Michel. We were team of 7 members.

In order to reach Mont St. Michel we had take the high-speed TGV train from Paris's Gare Montparnasse to Rennes, the train journey was for about 3 hours and went through one of finest and magnificent scenic route with large green landscapes and green top mountains and going through numerous tunnels..

(Picture #1: TGV from Paris to Rennes)

At Rennes we had to take a bus to reach Mont St. Michel, there are frequent buses operated from Rennes to Mont St. Michel, The Bus journey was for about 1 hour duration.

When you approach the Mont St Michel from 10 kms away you would be treated with one of the truly magnificent views. You can see the hill with castle on top from a distance and as you get closer you also see the water.
(Picture #2: First View of Mont St. Michel from the Bus)
(Picture #3: Closer View of Mont St. Michel from the Bus)
For a moment, you begin to wonder how something of this magnitude, this beautiful structure is able to exist in the middle of the water.

You are allowed to visit the castle only during specific times of the day when the tide is low. This has been one of the natural forms of defense for the castle against the invading enemies and the castle is accessible only for 12 hours during the low tide to launch their attack. Apart from this natural defense the entire castle is surrounded by high walls and mountains making it one of the most impregnable structure of all times in the history.
(Picture #4: Mont St. Michel surrounded by Water except the road)


Upon entering the Mont, you begin to traverse a small avenue with shops and restaurants on both sides of the avenue. Many wonderful gifts can be found in these shops. The angle of the incline becomes a little steep as you continue up the avenue.

Some of these shops sold one of the best ice creams and I got to taste one best soft home made Vanilla Ice cream.

Later you will learn that the top of the avenue is only about 1/3 of the height you will climb to reach the top of the Mont.

As you climb the series of steps up to the castle, you think of the history of the Castle, and imagine yourself traveling back in time several hundred years back walking amongst the clergy there at the Mont

The tour of the castles starts in the cathedral at the very top and spirals down through the many levels and is very well laid out.

Once you enter the Castle, it is truly breathtaking, the wonderful architecture that dates back 100s of years. When you reach the top, the view is most wonderful and breathtaking. When we arrived, the tide was still high and water had surrounded most of castle leaving only a road to reach the Mont. However, by the time we reached the top, the tide had begun to subside fast and we were able to swamp land around which was just few hours back covered by Water.
The tide (the bay has the second fastest tides in the world) went out we were to walk around the base of the island, shooting some of magnificent photographs some of which have become wall papers on most of our desktop PCs/Lap tops.

Sitting on the very top while we treated our eyes to one most fabulous views, we lavished on the fabulous ice creams to cool down our appetite.
We spent most of the day and late evening visiting the castle and for the night we halted at Avranches, in comfortable hotel.

Next day we walked the entire length of the road leading to Mont St. Michel while capturing some of the best photos during our walk.
(Picture #5: Mont St. Michel with Low tide in my hands)

My experiences of Living in France, Paris

France has a Multi cultured, Multi religious population. One can find people from all parts of the world from African origin, Srilankans, Chinese, Indians, and people from Middle East etc.
People in non urban areas seem to be more friendly and helpful then Metro population. People in Metros lead more mechanical and busy life then there non urban counterparts.

At work it is very rare to receive an appreciation from a French; the only kind of appreciation would be if there are no complaints about your work.

Language:
French is official language of France and very small population knows English. It is advisable for people who plan to visit France for business or work to pick up few day to day words in French.

Transportation:
Traveling in France or any part of Europe is a very comfortable experience. France and especially Paris has one of the best and well connected railway system and supposed to be one of the best in the world.

Traveling to any part of Paris is through underground trains, there are 2 forms of trains operating underground one is RER and other is the Metro, Metro runs within Paris city limits and is much smaller & runs on smaller tracks and shorter stops.

RER runs in the suburbs and outskirts of Paris and has got much wider tracks and mostly double Decker type and has got longer stops. These underground trains form the network under Paris, using these trains and Metro buses we can go to any part of Paris.

And there is TGV (High speed trains) which travel longer distances and connect different regions of France. It travels at an average of 200kmph. TGVs (high speed trains), Euro star’s, Eurorails connects most of the European cities

And there is Euro line, the bus network connecting all of the European cities.

Food and Wine:
Potato is kind of staple food for French; potatoes are eaten in various forms. Boiled whole potatoes, completely mashed potato, potato fries, French fries. Other vegetarian food includes boiled carrots, beans, lettuce. In non vegetarian food Duck, Chicken, Pork and Beef are most commonly consumed meat.

French food is mostly available in the form of boiled, fried or grilled and lacks spice. And it would take a while to get adapt to the taste of French food. Vegetarians will have tough time finding food. Breakfast can be managed by Bread/Jam/Butter, croissants (Kind of plain puff), Pain au Chocolate (Kind of puffs stuffed with chocolate), juice, and milk. French lunch/Dinner often end by having a cup of coffee or tea.

Other cuisine like Italian (Pizza, Pasta), Turkish food (Doner kebab), Asian (Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese), American (McDonald's) can be readily found in most of the places in France. Indian cuisine is not very popular but can be found in most places in Paris

Cheese and Wine:
France is known for its large ranges of wines and cheeses. It seems more then 300 different types of cheese is made here and France is one of the biggest wine producing regions in world, guess most of you have heard about Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Well Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux are different regions in France and wine made in this place gives it the name.

Places to Visit in Paris:
Paris is one of the most popular and widely visited tourist destination in Europe. In Paris, following are the popular must visit places
- Musée de Louvre
- Eiffel tower
- Notre Dame

Louvre Museum
This is world famous museum which has a collection of the world’s most celebrated paintings like Mona Lisa, Last Supper etc. The Museum was made more famous by Dan brown with his best selling book 'Da Vinci code' and now with his book made into film, it has become all the more famous as never before. This is the place where the plot for ‘Da Vinci code’ begins with the murder of the curator unfolds into mind boggling story and climaxes by showing the location of Holy Grail. If you are a Dan brown fan and have read ‘Da Vinci code’ then never miss Louvre and not without a photograph in front of the inverted pyramids, the location of the famous most sought after Holy Grail in Da Vinci code.

Embedded is the picture of inverted pyramids at Louvre, the location of Holy Grail as per Da Vinci code

Eiffel Tower:
France, Paris is often known by Eiffel tower. No visit to Paris is complete without visiting the world famous Eiffel tower and not without the magnificent view from the top of the tower itself.
Eiffel tower has three stages. For going to top there are lifts operated at all four corners of the Tower. First the lift takes you to the 2nd stage or floor, we have to get down here and take another set of smaller lifts to go to top, as we go up the tower the tower gets thinner and the lifts also get smaller. From the top you get one of magnificent of Paris; you have to go to top just before dark so that you can get the view of Paris both during day time and night time.

One more thing about Eiffel tower is just after dark the lights on tower starts blinking for a duration of about 10mins, this happens after every 1 hour after. This gives one of the amazing views of the Eiffel tower and one that should not be missed.

The Beauty of Eiffel tower can be bested enjoyed by choosing to view at different times during the day and night. Light plays fabulous trick on the tower and it assumes different color at different times.
Embedded are few pictures of Eiffel tower and its different shades
Picture #1: Eiffel tower during the day time
Picture #2: Eiffel tower just after sunset
Picture #3: Eiffel tower with lights on
Picture #4: Eiffel tower with Blinking lights on
Other places to visit in Paris
Sacro ceur: Specialty about this church is that it has been constructed on a small mountain and it has got one of the spectacular views of the Paris city from the top, the church itself is very beautiful white structure

Luxemburg gardens: Magnificent garden, park for an evening stroll and playground for children
Pantheon: Burial place for the most famous and greatest men and women
Invalides: Napoleon’s tomb and military museum
Champs Elyeeses: One of the famous streets in France and has shopping malls, restaurants, pubs and cinema theatres on either side of streets

Other popular destinations in France
Euro Disney, Asterix Parc, Versailles, Lille, Caen, Nice, Marseille, Monaco
Mount Saint Michel, Mont Blanc in Alps
Watch out for this space for more articles about my travel experiences in other parts of France and other European locations