France with My Sister: 28 October - Le Mont Saint-Michel

My sister has been to France numerous times, but she never had enough time to visit Le Mont St-Michel, one of the most beautiful sites in the country. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, LMSM has a Benedictine abbey perched on it's peak, with a small surrounding village. I didn't see any monks, what I did see, though, were about a million Japanese tourists, all trying to communicate that they want to buy all the souvenirs in the shops. It's so funny how they think French people can understand Japanese. 

Traveling to LMSM from Paris is pretty long and tiring (if you don't have a car, duh!). It consists of a 2.5 hour train ride to Rennes, a one hour bus ride to reach a bus stop so you can catch the shuttle that would bring you to the foot of the mountain (this would take an additional 10 minutes). 

When my Ate and I reached Rennes station, the next bus to Le Mont St-Michel was not for another two hours (usually the buses follow the train times, but we were unlucky because the timetables had just changed or something). So we walked around and bought some food at some grocery nearby and walked around some more.

EPAL Association. New members welcome :P

We were finally able to board the bus (we sat at the front row, of course!, "The view will be nice! We must sit at the front!!!") and we took some selfiez.

After the bus and shuttle rides, we finally arrived! The six hour trip was pretty worth it, just look at it:

We have approximately 249,870,876 pictures of the mountain, with different poses and from different angles, but it was windy, and this is the only nice one we have of us two together: 

If you read my previous blog post, http://chismiss.blogspot.fr/2013/12/france-with-my-sister-27-october-paris_9255.html, then you know that my sister loves taking pictures, and will go to any lengths just to take a good photo of the view, of her companions, and of course, of her. (She takes good photos of her companions so that they will feel compelled to follow her orders of taking 2 million photos of her in front of a tall building). 

Also, if you read my previous blog post, then you'd know that my sister likes to first take pictures of her companion in front of a nice view, then she will have the companion take her photo in front of the same view, most of the time doing the same pose. Real Asian style. So, I have decided to dedicate this post to expose just how Asian my sister is :P

Kimy under sign post

Gem under sign post

Kimy on stairs, with view of the bay

Gem  on stairs, with view of the bay

Kimy on stairs, with view of the abbey

Gem  on stairs, with view of the abbey

Kimy in front of crazy Japanese tourists

Gem skilfully covering crazy Japanese tourists

Kimy trying to make a 400 year old giant faucet work

Gem holding a 400 year old giant faucet

Kimy  at the church-abbey

Gem at the church-abbey

Kimy  sitting like a lady at the cloister

Gem  just sitting at the cloister

Kimy sitting next to a window

Gem standing, all emo, next to a window

Kimy trying to jump at the cloister

Gem successfully jumping at the cloister

Kimy's new and innovative posing idea

Gem copying Kimy's idea

Kimy projecting

Gem copying Kimy again

The big wheel and Kimy

The big wheel and Gem

Kimy cool

Kimy jump

Gem peace

Gem jump

--END OF ASIAN PICTURE TAKING SHOWCASE--

In the little "village" (now mostly souvenir shops and restaurants), there are La Mère Poulard signs everywhere. Apparently, it's a hotel and restaurant that originated from the mountain. They're famous for their omelettes and their biscuits. Check out the Japanese tourists hoarding below: 

We had some soup at one of the La Mère Poulard cafes

Cold and hungry Gem

Warm and happy Gem

Later in the afternoon, the weather was pretty icky--it was drizzling. Which was fine, because in the end, we were able to have a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!

What does it mean????

We had to leave pretty early, to catch the last bus & train back to Paris...but first we went to the supermarket at the foot of the mountain to buy some of dem La Mère biscuits.

And then, it was time to say goodbye to this wonderful sight.

P.S. Ate, thank you for bringing me here! I know you love me, I know you care. :P Share this on your FB timeline!!!!