Citotel 'Le Patton' Avranches

We arrived in St Malo at 8am Sunday morning, and waited in the departure lounge for about 3 hours untill aymericks friend eddy turned up.
Playing out guitars in an empty terminal, hungover, eddy finally arrived and we drove down in his make shift old banger of a mobile home van. Eddys family are beautiful, he has 3 great kids and a beautiful cottqge in awsome village.

... a whole ecosystem in the process. There is now a project in the works to replace the causeway with a bridge, and this will allow the sea to surround the island permanently again.

René dropped us at a parking lot on the mainland side so that we could walk on the causeway to the island. The mount gets closer and closer, and it's just spectacular. The only problem was avoiding all the “big messages” left by the grazing sheep. We stopped about halfway ...

... cobbled street lined with tacky tourist shops. The bloom has left the rose…

The streets wound up and up towards the top of the island: the monastery. Decided not to go into it. Brian was quite dismayed with the great gold figure of Michael the arch angel mounted at the top of the spire. Although, if you are going there - there’s not much else ...

... the eggs are tiny and delicate, then I guess that's it. Beautiful to look at, they are nicely speckled with brown. Hard boiled for the salad, you become quickly frustrated trying to peel them. Mostly you get more shell bits and egg bits on your fingers than you actually get off, and when the shell does start to give way, it's almost like tearing paper.

Driving through the countryside, we were forced to stop the car as a ...

... that the animal was well-cared for an enjoyed the best life possible, and you can make their death as humane as possible. Unlike what you may purchase in the grocery store.

Hung to drain, the birds were ready to be plucked. This was quite the tedious task, and almost the hardest. These beautiful creatures were no longer beautiful, they were food. Off with a couple extra appendages and empty the inside and it's all done. You have a ...

... things...

This is the home of about a 12 chickens, 6 ducks, 4 rabbits, 2 hare, 6 quail, 2 guinea fowl, and 2 pigs. We are greatly looking forward to learning how to care for these different animals. I would like to someday keep chickens, ducks, rabbit, pigs too so this will be great experience. I would also like to have some goats and maybe sheep, but we'll start with the ...

... arrived, he said goodbye and was on his way!

Taking back roads we enjoyed smooth tarmac and no traffic. The terrain here is much different than the UK. Long gradual hills which are easier on the legs, but ********* the endurance. Everything seems larger here: fields stretch further and the wide sky is not obstructed by many trees. Everything seems larger - except the cars. I must get some pictures to post. Tiny ...

... August it is a nightmare with all of the tourists there. Thankfully it was pretty cool out that day so we did not have to worry as much about being completely surrounded by thousands of other tourists. I think the highlight was when Jen saw all the warnings for
quicksand around the island. She thought that quicksand was only in
movies like the 80's film The Never Ending ...

We picked up our rented car and thank goodness it was a Saturday and the traffic was light so we had a relatively easy trip to the rue periphique and then west through Rouen and Caen down to Avranches. It was a very pleasant ride except for the numerous tolls. Oh well at least here you can ee that your toll money is being put to good use. The roads are fantastic with speed limits often of 130kph and traffic ...

... of MSM was somewhat disappointing as it was covered in mist and barely visible from the end of the causeway. I had heard the weather wasn't too good but was expected to clear up. Meanwhile I had had to get my weatherproof jacket out of my bag for the first time since camping! It was an easy 2km walk across to MSM and the tide was out. This meant that I couldn't see any water due to the 18km the tide retreats combined with the fog (couldn't see 200m to be honest ...