North coast news

This morning, we left Tours about 7:30am because we had about 3 1/2 hours in the bus to head north to Mont-Saint-Michel which is a monastery built on an island in the English Channel. This UNESCO site has been around for hundreds of years and is still inhabited by a small group of monks. It's quintessentially French with small, narrow streets lined with tourist shops and restaurants catering to the tourists. (By the way, last time is was here, it was cool and cloudy to the point we had jackets and long pants - today, even though we were north and on the coast, it was still in the high 80s. Got to be breaking a record of some sort.) So in the heat yet again, we climbed our way to the top of the hill to explore the famous fortress-turned-monastery. Luckily, it was a little cooler inside so we had a chance to escape the heat for a little while.  So after our visit, we had a chance to explore the little shops and grab something for lunch. Packed like sardines, we took a shuttle bus back to the parking lot and it was so hot my pants were sticking to my knees. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was good to sit in the AC on the bus. 

Our next stop was just down the road at a cookie shop where we got to taste-test a few kinds and then of course buy some. So maybe you'll get to try some... that is, if we don't eat them first. ;). 

Just over an hour later, we got to Saint Malo, which was so much cooler and breezier. What a relief. So Mario took us on a quick walking tour to get a lay of the land and see the cathedral where Jacques Cartier was blessed by the bishop before he left here to discover Canada. Then we had a little free time to explore and go up on the city walls. Then dinner of "moules frites" (mussels and fries) or steak and fries if we didn't want the mussels and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The annual fête de la musique had just started as we were leaving so we only got a little taste of it before we had to leave. Now tonight our hotel is pretty much in the middle of nowhere so a good deal of bonding time happened this evening. So on this longest day of the year, where it's finally getting dark about 11pm, I will say good night.