In the Refectory, we catch up with Joyce and David, our Cruise Critic tour organizer. We end up touring the rest of the abbey with them, and becoming the unofficial tour guide by providing additional commentary to the rooms, vis a vis Rick Steves.
The Refectory is the dining hall, where you can still see the long tables that were used for the monks. They ate in complete silence while one monk read from the bible.
It is sort of Harry Potterish in size – reminiscent of the huge dining hall of Hogwarts fame. But much more austere and religious, obviously.
Onward we go, through the Guests Hall with its twin huge fireplaces that were used as a kitchen for the guests. Then into the Hall of the Grand Pillars. This is one of the crypts built to support the abbey on top of the mount. The crypts were the only way to stabilize the monstrous structure on the rocky island. This particular crypt actually collapsed in the 1400s and had to be rebuilt. You can tell the difference by the huge pillars – rebuilt much larger than the original crypt pillars.
Next we go to the Ossuary, which is what I’ve been waiting for. The original use of the Ossuary was to store the bones of the dead, the cemetery was small, so it was emptied occasionally, and the bones stacked in this room. But the real fascination for me is the huge treadwheel. The abbey was used as a prison during the Revolution, and here the prisoners were used as human hamsters on the treadwheel. They were marched two abreast on the treadwheel to pull heavy loads of construction material up the steep side of the abbey on a steel sled. Amazing!
We finish our tour in the Promenade of the Monks with more crypts and Gothic vaults. Random pictures of which are below.
Back outside we walk through the gardens, heading down to the exit snapping more scenic pictures of the abbey exteriors and the view down to the bay below.
We follow the tour company instructions (Rick Steves in reverse) and manage to find the Ramparts to walk down from the abbey (manage to find because some bozo is standing right in front of the sign that indicates the Ramparts entrance). This is a much better way to walk down than the main road, which we are avoiding at all costs. We have packed our lunch, half our Rouen sausages and two sodas, because the tour company doesn’t recommend any restaurants in town – and we figure snacking will be better for us anyway. We stop on one of the Rampart walls and enjoy the view while we snack.
Continuing down the Ramparts, we find the gift store the instructions tell us to cut through and end up out on the main street of the town. Argh! We were smart to avoid this. It is crazy busy with people walking every which way, you can barely move in some spots, the road is so narrow and choked with people.
We do manage to find a little cafe with an available table to sit and have a beer though. It’s actually really nice to be able to just sit and relax and watch the people flow by.
We are right across from Madame Poulard’s, named after the lady who made omelets for the pilgrims. The restaurant still makes the omelets over an open hearth, reminiscent of the original creations. However, that is probably where the similarity ends – the prices are crazy! The cheapest omelet on the menu is 38 Euros. Yes, you read that right, 38 Euros for an omelet. Our sausage snacks were perfectly fine, thank you!
Refreshed and rested, we still have 2 hours until we need to meet the driver, so we head back to the shuttle and decide to get off at the hotel stop for a beer and wine. May be a mistake, since these shuttles are packed to the gills, and we still need to get back to the car park, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
We land in a cute little cafe/restaurant where we have a very nice and reasonably priced (surprisingly for where we are) drink. I get into a little bit of trouble when I pay with a 100 Euro note – but hey – blame the ATM! Then we are off – the shuttles are totally jammed, but we’ve spied a little walkway off to the left that looks like it points to the car park. We end up taking a lovely little walk on a paved lane alongside the corn fields. Back in the car park, we meet all our tour folks – we’re all early – nice! And hang out for a while in the information center trying somewhat unsuccessfully to get wifi.
The vans show up at the appointed time and we take our final look at Mont St. Michel as we head back to Cherbourg.
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