Mont Saint-Michel - The Disneycastle of Normandy

Timetable in Danger

The second day of the Normandy trip started with chaos. We met at 7:30 to have breakfast and were ready for departure at about 5 minutes to 8. But actually we were almost the only ones. There were people from our group that STARTED breakfast at 10 to 8 and, of course, were not ready at 8. The guide, a person that was always nervous already, became even more stressed because she saw her tough timetable dying. We and the other guests that were ready on time were annoyed too, because we stood up early to be ready on time and those other people just didn't care.

Trouville - Walking at the beach for the first time of the year

After 20 more minutes, the guide had almost lost her nerves, we could finally continue the trip. The first stop was Trouville, a city that was also called "pirate's city" because of its history. We didn't have much time to discover the city because we had already lost 30 minutes just waiting for the others. So we had 1, 5 hours to see Trouville, a nice small village with beach. We wanted to go to the beach because it was a nice and sunny day and it was quite warm for april. So we passed by the famous Casino, took some pictures and arrived at a beach without much water, because it was low tide. But we took off our shoes and enjoyed the sand under our feet - it was the first time of the year for me and it felt great (even if it was a bit cold). So we walked around the beach and enjoyed the sun until we had to get back to the bus.

Saint-Malo: Tourist Train Horror

This time, everybody arrived on time and we could continue the trip to the next city. It was Saint-Malo, also a city next to the sea. Because of the traffic we had lost 30 minutes more, so our time in Saint-Malo was limited to 45 minutes, which was nothing. So the guide suggested to buy a ticket for the "tourist-train" for the whole group in order to stay together and not to loose any more time. We agreed because we didn't have a choice, but nobody was very enthusiastic about that change. We arrived and had to wait 15 minutes for that train to come back to the departure point. We entered the train and got to see the city centre of Saint-Malo. But we didn't see a lot because the train had a closed roof and most of the buildings are taller than 1, 50m... but my impression is that it is a quite nice city, with impressing walls around it and beautiful historical buildings.

After the train tour we had 15 minutes left to do whatever we wanted. That was not much but fortunately the parking for the bus was just next to the beach, so we went there. It was still so nice weather, and we just enjoyed the sand under our feet and took (of course) some pictures. Then we had to get back to the bus that would bring us to Mont Saint-Michel, the highlight of the bustour. We had to hurry up, because we had already lost some time for our stay there.

The Tour Highlight: Mont Saint-Michel

After 1 hour driving we finally arrived at the parking of Mont Saint-Michel. One could already see the small island from far away and it was impressing! We didn't want to loose any time to see it from the inside so we hurried up getting the shuttle to arrive there. Before entering we had to take 1000 pictures, of course. But finally we were inside the Mont Saint-Michel, together with 100000 other tourists. It is a cute little village built on a mountain and consisting of 90% tourist shops. But there are actually still 19 people living on that island which I found very impressing. The top of Mont Saint-Michel is a church you can enter but due to the incredibly long queue we decided to invest that time otherwise. We took pictures, explored little streets, took more pictures and enjoyed the amazing view from the top of the mountain. After a while, the time we had to visit it was almost over, so we thought about getting back to the bus. But suddenly everyone was hungry, so we were looking for something to eat, but it was not so easy to find something that was quick, tasty and cheap. So we spent a lot of time looking for a suitable lunch/dinner and finally we had to really hurry up to be at the bus on time.

We were at the bus 5 minutes to late - alone. That was so annoying! We had hurried up so much, bought some not-really-tasty food just to arrive in time and nobody was there already. Not even the bus driver, so we had to wait outside the bus. 10 minutes later at least the driver arrived and let us enter the bus. He was also shocked that there was almost nobody there, and we were very angry because the guide wasn't even there! She, who was always so nervous and wanted to keep the timetable executed was more than 20 minutes late. Impossible!

After 40 minutes the rest of the group but 2 persons arrived. The guide was feeling very uncomfortable because she knew that she was almost an hour too late, but she didn't even say sorry. She told us something about the church in order to distract us from her mistake. There were still 2 people missing and she told us that we would arrive about 2 hours later in Paris as planned. So we started to look for trains from Amiens to Paris and didn't find any. That was not good! I didn't want to stay in a 10-Euro-Hostel for one night, I wanted to get back to my room, have fresh clothes etc. So finally the 2 persons arrived (they didn't find the exit of the Island, haha) and we could start our way to Paris, with 1, 5 hours retard. So during the first hour of the bus drive we were discussing possibilities to get the last train to Amiens, to get another train etc - just not to have to stay in Paris for the night. But there was no possibility, so someone from us reserved a hostel and we had to take our fortune.

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