{"id":14363,"date":"2026-07-12T14:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14363"},"modified":"2026-07-12T14:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:36:38","slug":"epic-france-trip-mont-saint-michel-and-the-scriptorial-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14363","title":{"rendered":"Epic France Trip – Mont Saint-Michel and the Scriptorial – Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thursday, June 18, was my third day in France.<\/p>\n

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I took the picture above from the grounds of my hotel in the morning. More than any other, with the sheep in the foreground and the misty blue sky, this reminds me of the poster my housemate had when I was in grad school – that made me want to visit Mont Saint-Michel forever after. So it’s forty years later! I remember.<\/p>\n

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I’d done the AMAZING High Tides tour in the bay the night before. That was booked months in advance, so on Thursday I took my sweet time and set my own schedule and went to Mont Saint-Michel just as a regular tourist.<\/p>\n

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This time, I’m sorry to say, I took the shuttle bus across the bridge to the Mont. The bottoms of my feet were still sore from walking it the night before, and I knew I’d be doing lots of climbing to get to the Abbey.<\/p>\n

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And, yes, that’s how it went. I think of myself as pretty fit, but all this climbing I’m doing on this trip – stairs in my hotels and then to the top of Mont Saint-Michel to tour the Abbey – all that is doing me in. So I took my time and took it in stages. Taking pictures is actually a good excuse to stop and rest!<\/p>\n

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Viewing the Abbey reminded me of visiting castles in Germany – I liked that the tour led us through every part. (And yes! Mont Saint-Michel is Castle #177 on my personal castle count.) I bought a book to better understand (when I get home) what the different parts were and when they were built. But at the time, I enjoyed the amazing architecture and stunning views. When I started the tour, the bay was full of water. By the time I left, it was again revealing sand.<\/p>\n

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My favorite part was the Cloister.<\/p>\n

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Moving on to the Refectory:<\/p>\n

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This is Saint Aubert being told by the archangel Michael to build the abbey. He didn’t listen the first time, so Michael touched his head, leaving a hole in his skull.<\/p>\n

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They had lovely art displayed in some of the rooms.<\/p>\n

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This is in the Scriptorium:<\/p>\n

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When I finished the Abbey tour, I came down slowly along the ramparts – more amazing views. I stopped in at plenty of shops and spent a bundle on souvenirs – two t-shirts, several bookmarks (I can always use those!), a tourist book in English, some sweets, a couple blank books (couldn’t decide which one I liked best), and some magnets. I probably spent more than I “should” – except who says? They will make me smile because they make me think of an amazing visit. I did resist the puzzles, since I already own two that depict Mont Saint-Michel.<\/p>\n

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By now it was early afternoon, and I decided to finish my day at The Scriptorial in Avranches. It’s a museum about the manuscripts of Mont Saint-Michel. I’m afraid I wasn’t super impressed with the museum. First, it was trickier to get to than I’d thought – driving through towns rather than countryside. At one point I missed a turn on a roundabout. The GPS, with her cultured British voice, didn’t tell me I’d missed the exit – it just politely told me to take the fourth exit on the next<\/em> roundabout – which pointed me back the way I’d come! The second time on the earlier roundabout, I realized that yes, it really did want me to take that tiny road up the hill that I’d thought was just a driveway.<\/p>\n

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The Scriptorial was a cool museum, and they did have an Audiotour in English – but the Audiotour wasn’t really complete (unless I missed some of the signs for when you were supposed to turn it on). It was about monks crafting medieval manuscripts, and maybe I simply wasn’t in the right mood for it, but it was a lot to take in with my poor French.<\/p>\n

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I saw later in my guidebook that it was a “short” walk to the Donjon and a panoramic view. I’d seen a sign and seen an old wall, but it was pointed uphill, and I’d definitely done enough climbing for one day. So I got back in my car (I’d taken a picture of where I’d parked it – which helped me remember where I’d parked it, anyway.) and went back to the hotel – for a 7:30 pm dinner reservation at the hotel restaurant.<\/p>\n

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The food at French restaurants feels too elegant for me. I loved the meal, but I will probably just settle for one meal at each hotel restaurant. Don’t cringe, but I brought some Kind bars to get me through if I would otherwise miss a meal. Anyway, that night I enjoyed a fancy Entree, then a steak, then ice cream for dessert – all with crusty bread to go with it.<\/p>\n

Before I went to bed, I discovered the Rolladen at the windows, so I wasn’t quite<\/em> as hot that night. But I’m glad I’ll be moving on before the temperature really takes a hike!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, June 18, was my third day in France. I took the picture above from the grounds of my hotel in the morning. More than any other, with the sheep in the foreground and the misty blue sky, this reminds me of the poster my housemate had when I was in grad school – that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-14363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14363"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14546,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363\/revisions\/14546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}