Saint Malo & Mont Saint Michel

Good afternoon readers =)

Yesterday was the first of 4 CIDEF excursions (I only plan to attend 3), of which we went to Saint Malo and Mont Saint Michel. I woke up bright and early (5:30am) and found a bunch of people from home online, which was an odd experience for me, but alas, I got my act together and quickly got ready. Liana and I packed some snacks, ate a quick breakfast, and departed, only to be attacked by a morning rain, which did not do wonders on my (newly brown) hair. We arrived slightly wet, but still happy at around 7, and quickly found les filles and boarded our bus, which by luck was the one M. Melin was on, and he made the experience slightly better by randomly spewing facts of different places at us, and making constant jokes.
The bus.
Oh my, well you know those trips you take in middle school that always seem fun because you're on a chartered bus and its all comfy and nice and you're with friends so it's great? yeah, well fast-forward to college and it has lost it's appeal. being with my friends helped, but no matter how many times we switched were we were seated, we ended up near people who were being obnoxiously loud and telling various life stories that we didn't care to hear. We were exhausted and wanted to sleep, but even if it had been quiet, there's no way it would have happened. We spent the majority of the time swapping random stories(and mean jokes of the others on the bus) listening to our ipods, and (on the way home) laughing for no particular reason-out of complete and utter slap-happiness.

All bus complaining aside, when we arrived in Saint Malo, it was worth every second of it. Saint Malo is this beautiful city located right on the English Channel/ Atlantic Ocean, in Bretagne. It is known for its pirates and a few well known French people, like Jacques Cartier-who discovered Canada.M. Melin also informed us that during WWII, nearly everyone (Germans, English, French, Americans) bombed this particular city, and it was rebuilt after-wards, and everything was restored to it's original fashion. Incredible.  We descended the bus, and I immediately smelled the Ocean and felt at ease. Something about that smell gets me every time. Les filles and me walked the ramparts taking pictures for a while and finally finding a way down to the beach. We climbed through seaweed covered rocks, looked for seacreatures(Liana), pocketed a few shells, walked the sandy beach, and I let the Ocean water cover just a little bit of my shoes.(I wanted to go in the water!) I could write forever about how amazing this place felt and I truly believe I could have spent a lot more time just at the Ocean/beach part of Saint Malo. However we didn't have much time, so we went looking for apple pastries, and ended up getting something that I felt was better. =) After our quick pastry shop stop, we wandered the cobblestone streets and found a quaint little pub complete with a real fire burning in the fireplace. The four of us sat down and enjoyed some Cidre while chatting in front of the fire. Eventually we made it back to our starting point, and boarded the bus.

A huge wave of exhaustion hit on the ride to Mont Saint Michel, and even though I fought it, I dozed off for a few minutes. Mont Saint Michel is amazing. It is this very old, very beautiful island complete with an abbey, and a lot of tourist-y things. This time of year, only 20 people actually live on it, and it is usually surrounded by water(hence it being an island) but yesterday the ride was out really far, and people were actually walking around in the sand surrounding it (not recommended-quick sand). We chose to stay away from being swallowed into sand, and took part in what can only be described as the best workout program available, a million stairs. Okay, maybe not a million, but there were a TON. We followed right behind M. Melin and when we got to the top, although all of us(m. included) were huffing and puffing, the view was worth it. I can only describe it as breathtaking. We then took a tour of the Abbey, of which I took a lot of pictures. The whole place is very quiet and calming and the sun managed to come out making it even more beautiful. After the Abbey, we wandered down the tourist-y traps and Gabby got a sandwich-and all of us used the bathroom there, only to find out it was out of any sort of toilet paper or paper towel, so I asked the lady at the counter for napkins! (Our options were napkins, bus bathroom-EW, or the public, latrine-like, bathroom at the bottom of le Mont..ick) After this we wandered in and out of shops and I got some vanilla gelato-excellent. We took a few more pictures and boarded the bus home.
We got back and all of us were very hungry, so we headed over to Bressigny and got some greasy yet delicious food before heading home to shower, update facebook, and eventually pass out.
Overall I'd say I liked Saint Malo better, simply because of the Ocean/beach. The history of both places is incredible and I don't think there is really anything that compares to them in the states.