Friday, January 11, 2008

Get Mideavel On You

From WWII history to the Middle Ages! Today we headed off to Mont-St-Michel. It's an abbey that dates to the Middle Ages that is situated on a gigantic rock that it sometimes an island and sometimes not. If you park in certain places, the sea will actually wash away your car!

In the Middle Ages, worshipers made pilgrimages to the church to worship The Archangel Michael. We felt a little like them as we drove up and saw it majestically rising out of the sea. You climb up through a tiny winding village with shops and restaurants and multiple alley ways and winding staircases. After the shops, you climb up to the abbey. It's WAY up there...

The Abbey is another place that seemed to have ghosts. It was actually built in the Middle Ages, and as you take the tour, you can feel the Benedictine monks walking through the ancient pathways with candles. Benedictine monks take vows of silence, and since we again had the place to ourselves, you could feel how it must've been. It is amazing to think that ancient stone masons had mastered their craft so well that they could build something this big and still have it standing there for us to see today.

After the Mont, we got back in the car for the last long leg of driving. I have taught the Vaceks the term, "car butt", and have confirmed that even in France, we're not good at driving vacations. After a few rousing games of "guess if the next village will have a pharmacy" (I thought you would be proud of that one dad) we finally made it to Le Mans, home of the grand Prix. Le Mans has a mini Notre Dame, St. Juliens, that was gorgeous. It's also a walled city!

After wandering around aimlessly for a while, we finally just settled on another sandwich from the bakery and ate in the car. We are SERIOUSLY missing Chuy's and Chinese food right now. We've all met our limit of bread and cheese or "Cheesy Bread" as we're referring to it now.

We made it to the Loire Valley and Chateau de la Barre. We are happy to report that our next hosts, the Count and Countess Van'aasay are lovely and plan on staying here the entire night! 

Tomorrow we're off to view more chateaus, wineries, and quaint villages.

4 comments:

Moo said...

Did you say you were tired of cheesy bread -- guess "car butt" will do that to you. I'll eat Mexican for all 4 of you tonight -- close you eyes and imagine Chuy's. On a funny note - when I long in at work, this page is in French. Seen any TOTAL gas stations? Love you all -- keep having fun!

tinareso said...

Susan,Megan and myself all read the blog together tonight--and George also. We enjoyed each other but miss each of you so much--I am so glad that you are having a great time--the place you are staying is lovely--and we can't wait to see the rest of the pictures---and beware of the ghost--I don't like them either--Uncle Geeorge came driving a white Cadillac Van--Megan and Susan took it for a spin--------Love Gan/mother

Susan said...

OK, OK, OK! You guys like to climb alot! Did Lynn and Bob really make that trip, did not see any photos, I hope they are not laid up at the chateau...lol!
By the way, the place you are staying looks way too cool..The photo of you and Blake is very good, I hope he is snapping alot of good photos. Be Safe and Keep on Blogging!

Unknown said...

I'm very jealous of this leg of the journey! Everything is so pretty! And, on another note, I have a 4th, yes 4th, round on Wednesday :)