After a final breakfast, it was time to leave Chateau St Gilles. It was such a beautiful hotel, but the rest of our time in Normandy was focused on Mont St Michel.
But first, we went to Utah Beach and St Mère Eglise. I wanted to see the other major American landing zone and the famous church where the Airborne private was stuck.
I’m so glad we got to see both places! Between Utah Beach and SME, we took a secondary road through the fields and hedgerows. It was 1.5 lanes wide, but fortunately, we only passed one car going the other direction.
I had another sausage roll for lunch, while SMS had a ham and cheese galette. Then, it was off to Mont St. Michel.
Mont St. Michel
Even though I’m usually a huge public transportation fan, I’m so glad we had our car. We drove to the MSM parking lots, which are over a mile away from the site. This is a great design since the vista approaching the abbey is part of the beauty. It’s so nice that it’s not ruined by cars.
We decided to walk to the abbey, which was great for the views. It is such an impressive place- it’s massive! We were there at low tide and saw a lot of people walking along & across the sand.
I had pre-booked tickets for exploring the abbey. It was impressive, but the most amazing part were the views from the ramparts.
After touring, we walked back to the car. We stayed at a nearby B&B called Clos St-Gilles. The co-owner Thibaut said it used to be a sanatorium with a chapel and that St. Gilles is the patron saint of the sick. It was a very nice B&B but to be completely honest, I was spoiled by the super nice hotel we had just left. I would recommend it, just maybe stay in reverse order!
Le Sillon de Bretagne
Tatiana met us and gave a great recommendation for dinner. Le Sillon de Bretagne is an amazing restaurant with “haute cuisine at half the price”(Thibaut). It’s true! This was one of the best meals of the trip so far and the price was super reasonable.
I had the voulette (cauliflower soup) and the canard. SMS had oysters and the fish/sauerkraut dinner, which gave us Alsace vibes. For dessert, I had the Bounty which is a chocolate & coconut dish with a semi-solid chocolate shell while SMS had the baked apple. Every dish was delicious and it was such a great place. I highly recommend!
Wonderful to get good tips of where to eat, that meal looks amazing!
I’ve been to that area twice…in 2018 we only went as far as the bridge, just to see MSM. I had hurt my knee and didn’t think I could manage going up up up. In 2022 I went with my cousin, and that time we did the entire tour. It’s very cool. I think the coolest thing about it for me was that I had no idea it even existed, and then in 2018 we were driving from Paris to Brest to visit friends who live there, and we just saw it from the freeway, all magical and everything. Europe is so much older than the US, in terms of ancient churches and so on.