monks > u

France

Monks got skillz, you know,
Building in places no one
Would go, like up there.

The ride today along the sea was lovely (and hilly). We followed the Baie de le Mont Saint Michel, which basically meant that we got to admire the structure all morning as we rounded the corner and approached it. It looks so improbable, that big pointy thing sticking out of the large flat area that surrounds it for kilometres. Monks are crazy.

Le Mont Saint Michel was begun in the 10th century, and it has been added on to by generation after generation since then. It withstood British attacks during the Hundred Years War and German attacks during both Great Wars. Although it's just an abbey built on top of crypts (the only way to build something with a flat floor was to build a lot of something else underneath it, due to the amazing pointiness of this hill), it functions as a virtually impregnable fortress.

The windows and decorations in the abbey were pretty impressive, too. The stained glass formed patterns like Celtic knots, and even the stones were carefully laid into designs in the floor. It's a UNESCO site (man, how many of those have we seen lately?), and as such it's pretty well kept up. The lower areas are full of shops in the old building style of Europe, and although it's too expensive to really consider buying anything there, it's nice to stroll through, especially when you're exhausted from a morning and early afternoon spent biking through hills.

From le Mont Saint Michel, we had to head towards the ferry listed on our map as coming out of Saint Malo. In order to make it to the UK for the World Naked Bike Ride (we're doing the Brighton ride on 13 June), we have to take some form of transportation other than our bicycles. ;) Anyway, the ferry is in Saint Malo, which was another 50 km.

Long story short, France tried to screw us over again with pouring rain and lashing winds, but we made it at a reasonable hour (about 22h) and learned that the next ferry to Portsmouth would leave at 10h30 tomorrow. After a delicious dinner of chick pea/green pepper/onion/tomato/garlic/cinammon/curry/olive oil salad with local wine, we settled into a campsite for a good sleep. ^_^