Mont Saint-Michel

On the second day of our school trip we came here, and it was one of the most incredible, beautiful places I've ever been.  The town that's built up around the base of the Mont is what you would imagine a little fairy-tale French village to be, all winding cobblestone streets and hidden passageways, cozy shops and crêperies. The monastery at the top is beautiful, too, but the best part of it all is the view.  Mont Saint-Michel is a tidal island in the Couesnon River, so all you see for miles is water and sky.

Bayeux

So the great photo catch-up begins with a few pictures of the town of Bayeux in Normandy. We stopped there briefly on our school trip to Omaha Beach and Mont Saint Michel, and I can't tell you how nice of a change it was from the pace of city life in Paris. We spent the afternoon just wandering around the town, enjoying the tranquility of the old shop-lined streets, exploring the cathedral and an open-air market, and eating apple tarts, a specialty of the region.

Bayeux is also the home of the Bayeux tapestry, a 230 foot long embroidered piece of linen that dates from around the 12th century.  The tapestry depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

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We spent a little while at the tapestry museum, walking the length of the fabric.  The audio guides were helpful, but they were also in very fast-paced French so I may have missed a few things.  I still enjoyed all the little details, though, like this guy's awesome moustache.