{"id":14368,"date":"2026-07-19T22:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14368"},"modified":"2026-07-19T22:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:50:07","slug":"epic-france-trip-traditional-crossing-of-the-bay-at-mont-saint-michel-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14368","title":{"rendered":"Epic France Trip – Traditional Crossing of the Bay at Mont Saint-Michel – Day 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This was it! The big day I was going to fulfill the dream! And walk across the bay of Mont Saint-Michel to the island – and back!<\/p>\n

Here we go:<\/p>\n

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[Note: This was written that evening in my hotel room. I’m adding in pictures after I got back. I’ll distribute pictures through the text.]<\/p>\n

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I probably should have taken note of how often the tour company emphasized the distance – 7 kilometers – one way! And I should have considered that I already had blisters on the bottoms of my feet. And I definitely should have put sunscreen on my feet after I took off the shoes and socks I wore to drive to the meeting place!<\/p>\n

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I’ll be honest – I could not keep up. The mud felt better on my feet than hard sand waves – but in a lot of places, there were rocks under six inches of squooshy mud, which did hurt those blisters. And it was a lot more work to scrunch through knee-high mud than even to wade through rivers that went up to my thighs. Bottom line, the guide walked fast<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Selfishly, I was glad that there were three stragglers – a group with a little dog – who were as far behind me as I was behind the main group – so I didn’t feel quite as bad about not keeping up. At one point, the guide did go back for the lady having trouble in the mud and gave her a hand. But it wasn’t like you could get lost in the bay. I did worry about if I fell over in the mud or in a river, if I’d get help on time. Though it would have been nice to walk with friends who’d give you a hand in tough spots, I was kind of glad that I hadn’t dragged anyone else on an adventure that ended up being a strenuous workout.<\/p>\n

There was a nice family – a husband and wife and daughter – who kindly summarized in English what the guide said at the stops. For all the French CDs I listened to, my French fled when I got here – but French people invariably speak much better English than my French, and have been very kind.<\/p>\n

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We walked very close to the island of Tombelaine in the middle of the bay.<\/p>\n

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By this time, I realized the tops of my feet were getting sunburned. (It’s a bad thing if I notice that while still in the sun!) So I tried to stand with my feet in the shade of my legs when we stopped for the guide to talk. But I still didn’t think to pull out the sunscreen in my bag and apply it!<\/p>\n

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It did feel amazing to be there in the middle of the bay.<\/p>\n

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I am<\/em> glad I did the whole crossing of the bay. I didn’t know it without doing both, but the High Tides Tour would have been enough.<\/p>\n

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If anybody reading this ever visits Mont Saint-Michel, do one of the tours that takes you into the bay. They’re totally worth it!<\/p>\n

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But let me compare the two tours I did in case you only have time for one:<\/p>\n

The High Tides tour is not only shorter than the Traditional Crossing (2 hours instead of 6 hours) – it also goes at a more leisurely pace. It’s more of a Wonder-filled Stroll, whereas the Traditional Crossing is more of a Goal-oriented Workout (get to the other side!). We also stopped more frequently on the High Tides tour.<\/p>\n

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Both tours played in quicksand (so VERY cool – nothing like the quicksand that terrified me on Gilligan’s Island!), but experiencing the tide come sweeping in on the High Tides tour is just incredible.<\/p>\n

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As of a week ago, I’m 62 years old. So my stamina may not be what it once was, and I may be in denial about that. I also have short legs and had blistered feet, so besides taking 296 pictures, that’s my excuse for not keeping up. I did<\/em> make it the whole way there and back.<\/p>\n

We had a bit more than a half-hour break at Mont Saint-Michel to rest and eat a snack.<\/p>\n

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Even though looking back, I realize it would have been much more prudent to settle for the High Tides Tour – especially once I realized I had blisters on my feet – I still can’t help but be glad I did it! The High Tides Tour was a thing of wonder and joy. The Traditional Crossing was a really hard thing across really interesting sand and rivers and rocks and mud – and I’m proud to have done it!<\/p>\n

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This is how far the stragglers were behind me. But I was that far behind the main group:<\/p>\n

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I’m pretty sure the water was deeper on the way back.<\/p>\n

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Now, on the High Tides Tour, I wore neoprene footies to protect my feet. But it got me wondering what the mud would actually feel like. I wanted a more visceral experience. Yeah, I probably should have reversed that and gone barefoot on the short<\/em> walk. My blisters did burst, and I lost a big flap of skin on my right big toe. But what turned out to be even worse was that I put on sunscreen back at the hotel before I left – when I was wearing shoes. The tops of my feet got a vicious sunburn. Makes me really really glad I put on sunscreen everywhere else!<\/p>\n

But – it is really hard to walk! I may be doing more modifications of my plans for the rest of the trip.<\/p>\n

Added later: That was a bad sunburn. Second-degree, complete with blisters, was very painful on my trip and took three weeks to heal – but still – it was totally worth it!<\/p>\n

I wrote the above that night when I was exhausted and had sore feet. A month later, when inserting the pictures, I think of it as an awesome experience that I will remember the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

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This was it! The big day I was going to fulfill the dream! And walk across the bay of Mont Saint-Michel to the island – and back! Here we go: [Note: This was written that evening in my hotel room. I’m adding in pictures after I got back. I’ll distribute pictures through the text.] I […]<\/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":[73],"class_list":["post-14368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-france2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368","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=14368"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14690,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14368\/revisions\/14690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}