The Marvelous Mont Saint-Michel

September 30, 2021:

On September 30, 2021, our ship anchored off the coast of Brittany. We tendered into the port of Saint Malo, which is a fortified island settled by traders, merchants and privateers. It became a very wealthy town in the Middle Ages.  St. Malo is still very popular with the yachting crowd, and it looked darling, but we went to explore the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel instead. 

St. Malo Harbor

Le Mont Saint-Michel is a granite tidal island located about a kilometer off the coast of Normandy at the mouth of the Couesnon River. The river has changed course several times over the centuries which put the island in Brittany and in Normandy at different times. The island sits in the middle of a bay which is 500 kilometers across. At a very high tide, the island is separated from the mainland. The tidal fall is 45 feet (15 meters), which is second only to the Bay of Fundy for greatest tidal fall. The tidal speed is very fast, and runs at about 3.5 kilometers per hour.  The island is connected to the mainland by a long causeway bridge, which allows the tides to pass under (and sometimes over) the bridge. Even when the tide is out, the bay is very dangerous because as the tide goes out, tidal waters run through the sands leaving quicksand pools.  Many people walk out on the sands, but they only go with registered guides who know the safe routes.

The granite rock on which the Abbey, and the small collection of homes and shops is built, rises 80 meters out of the bay, and the Abbey is another 80 meters high. It is believed that the rock was probably originally the site of Celtic worship, but there is no archeological remains to prove it. Legend has it that in the year 708 A.D., St. Michael, the archangel, appeared in dreams three times to the local bishop of Avranches, Aubert, and told him to build a church on the rock. The first monastery was established on the island in the 8^th Century, and the name of the island was changed from Mont Tombe to Mont Saint-Michel. Pilgrims started coming to the island, starting in the 8th and 9th centuries. Vikings captured the island in 847 AD, and trashed much of the existing church and drove the monks out. Rollo, Duke of Normandy, restored and rebuilt the church, and recalled the monks after the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911 created the Duchy of Normandy, and established Rollo as its first Duke. The Abbey was then built by an order of Benedictine monks. Rollo’s son, William I, continued financing and building the Abbey. 

The1.6 kilometer causeway leading to the Mont Saint-Michel. You can either ride the free shuttle, or hire one of these horse-drawn carts.

A typical apple tree in Brittany

First view of the Abbey

The tidal flats when the tide is out

The Abbey

Visitors walking the tidal flats with a registered guide

The outfall from the Couesnon River

View of the causeway leading to the drop-off point at the base of the Mont.

For eight centuries the Benedictine monks managed the Abbey, managed some of the largest states in the area, took care of floods of pilgrims, and wrote beautiful manuscripts. A huge new building was built as an annex to the church on the sea side of the Abby complex which was three stories high: on the top floor the monks were housed; on the second floor, royal visitors and other nobles were housed, the ground floor was kept for common pilgrims. However, following the French revolution in 1793, the monks were expelled and kept off the rock until the 1960s. During that period, the French government used the Abbey and its buildings as a prison. A huge lift was created which was powered by the human labor of the  convicts, which could lift several tons oof goods. The contraption worked by the convicts pushing against a huge hamster wheel-like mechanism. The site stopped being used as a prison in 1863.

The place where provisions and building materials were hoisted up to the top level of the Mont, through that window.

This rope was attached to the load at the bottom.

The hamster wheel hoist

It was not until the end of the 1960s that the Abbey, which had been listed as a historic monument belonging to the French state, would welcome a new Benedictine community. In June, 2001, the Order of Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem took over the management of the Mont Saint-Michel, and still its monks and nuns still inhabit the Mont.

Gargoyles!

And Flying buttresses!

To climb from the causeway all the way up into the Abbey is a process that climbs probably close to 300 feet in altitude,and takes over 400 steps. It is difficult walking on ancient stone staircases, so people with mobility issues should probably not attempt the hike. However, from the top of the Abbey grounds, you can look out in 360° all around at the estuary and tidal flats surrounding the Mount Saint-Michel. It is an awesome site! The oldest parts of the church and the Abbey demonstrate typical features of Gothic architecture including flying buttresses and innumerable gargoyles.

And more stairs

Monk spotting.

The Benedictine monks who inhabited the Abbey for eight centuries practiced a very Spartan lifestyle. They ate only two meals a day, did not converse, and spent much of the rest of their time in contemplation or in prayer. In the very early years of the monastery, the monks are believed to have written illustrated manuscripts, however, with the advent of the printing press, that practice was no longer continued by the early 1300s.

The Refectory where the monks ate. Notice the tables are set so the monks do not face each other so they were not tempted to speak.

Stained glass windows in the Refectory

The nobles room

The whole time of our visit as we walked through all of the associated buildings on the Mont Saint-Michel, we marveled at the architecture and its preservation over the centuries to modern day. I found the cloister area particularly peaceful.

The room where commoners could bed down

The cloister area

Offset columns holding up the roof of the cloister.

However, after a strenuous hike around the buildings, we were more than ready for lunch. Jim and I found a tavern in the town below the Abbey serving mussels and french fries (moules frites), and devoured them with indecent haste. I confess, we both had a nap on the bus back to Saint Malo. Saint Malo looked like an awesome medieval town with walled ramparts, and we challenged ourselves to visit again someday to explore its wonders. Stay tuned, for tomorrow we visit the seaside town of Concarneau , still in Brittany, France.

Cherbourg: Cows, Calvados, Cookies & Cider

Sept. 29, 2021:

We spent the day Sept. 28th boarding our ship, the Crystal Endeavor, and exploring her gorgeous (and thoughtful design. We also finally got to meet our travel agent, Ngaire Keene; her husband, Ken; and a group of other clients represented by her agency, Keene Luxury Travel.

On the morning of September 29^th, we docked at the port of Cherbourg, France in the region of Normandy. Cherbourg was a big port city with 80,000 inhabitants, and has long been an important source of trade for France. There are two main industries in Cherbourg: the port (which mostly imports Japanese cars for transshipment to the rest of Europe), and the shipyard which makes nuclear submarines (including the ones which were to be sold to Australia). During World War II, the Germans occupied Cherbourg, and heavily fortified it.  To this day, German bunkers still exist in the town.

Jim elected to take a tour to the D-Day beaches and the artificial port which was built in Arromanches where the Allies built an artificial port in four days to support the invading forces. I elected to go into the countryside for an excursion called A Taste of Normandy.

Here is his account:

I really wanted to see the site of the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach.  My excursion had three parts; a visit to Omaha Beach, a visit to the nearby American Cemetery, and a visit to the town of Arromanches, just up the coast. 

On the way to Omaha Beach, we passed Utah Beach, another of the landing sites for the Americans. The British and Canadians also had their own beaches where they led the landing forces. I’m not going to go into a lot of historical detail (you can read all about that in many places or by watching films—“The Longest Day” was recommended by our guide.) Rather, I am going to share a few of my observations from the day. 

One of the first things that I hadn’t really understood was the geographic size of the landing zones. I’m mainly thinking about the length of the different landing sites. They go on for tens of miles. The coordination necessary to make that all work was phenomenal. Another thing was the brutal conditions the US forces faced when landing at Omaha. Although the invasion is largely characterized as a surprise, the Germans had that beach fairly-well defended and the US troops didn’t have much cover at all. Being there and standing on that beach sent shivers up my spine thinking of the overwhelming odds those guys were facing. 

After the visit to Omaha Beach, we went over to the American Cemetery. It was a very moving experience seeing all the grave sites of the brave soldiers who gave everything to fight the fascists. It was even more striking when our guide told us that 60% of the fallen had been repatriated to the US for burial so I was only seeing 40% of the fallen. This was truly hallowed ground. 

Our last stop was the town of Arromanches. To be honest, I had never heard of this place. What I learn, however, is that if the efforts at Arromanches hadn’t succeeded, all the losses of life in the D-Day invasion might have been for naught. Basically, once the allies had established a beachhead, it was imperative that they have a port to provide a secure supply line to the newly established front, or the whole thing would collapse. All the usable ports in Normandy, like Cherbourg, were firmly in German control. I learned the story (and I encourage you to look it up—it is incredible, especially for us engineers) of how the US, British and Canadian forces built a port out from scratch in less than a week using super-secret prefabricated parts built in the UK and barged over to France in the wake of the invasion. It was a spectacular piece of logistics and engineering. There were still remnants of the WWII works visible off the beach in Arromanches. 

Arromanches

Back to Stacy …

Normandy was invaded by Vikings in the 9^th Century AD (“Norsemen”), and the area was officially ruled by Normans from the 10^th Century AD, when the king of France created the Duchy of Normandy and ceded control to a Viking, Rollo, as the first Duke of Normandy. It did not become officially part of France until France was unified in the 16^th Century.

Another key industry in this area of Normandy is agriculture. The area has very rich and fertile ground, and rains quite a bit, so the farmers of the area grow many different crops, including corn for animal fodder, and do lots of dairy and sheep farming. Because of the rich soil and abundant grass, Norman cows give very fatty milk, so this area is famous for its butter and cheeses. All of the cheeses made locally are soft cheeses, like Camembert. Our guide tells us the people of Normandy love butter, and so they are also known as great bakers. Thus, our first stop is at a cookie factory, which is called La Maison du Biscuit. (“the house of cookies”). It is a very fanciful building built to look like a small village, and each of the rooms are dedicated to showcasing different local products. The factory has a history of over 100 years of baking cookies, and our guide tells us that all the ingredients are locally sourced. I’m a little skeptical, because I don’t think sugar, cocoa, or baking spices can be grown here!  But I’m game to sample their offerings, with a café au lait, of course!

La Maison du Biscuit

In addition to baked goods and dairy products, the Normandy area is very famous for its apple products; in particular, hard cider, apple juice, and apple brandy called Calvados. Appropriately, our next stop was at a cider farm, called la Père Mahieu. Our guide told us that it has been a very wet summer (even by Normandy’s standards), with almost no sunny days, so apple harvest is very late this year.  Usually, the apples would have all been harvested by late September, and they are just starting the harvest now. The apples used in the ciders and brandy are a mixture of different apple types, and most of them are varieties which are very small and not sweet, and not eaten. We had a lovely drive through the countryside to get to the cider farm. The prevailing architectural style is to build stone houses made of limestone and scheist.

The farmhouse at Ciderie la Pére Mahieu

After a tour of the facilities at the farm, we saw a movie about the making of cider and Calvados brandy. Interestingly, the apples are not picked, but rather, the farmers let them fall to the ground, and they are swept up by a machine. Here at this farm, both the cider and Calvados are made from three types of apples-sweet, sour, and bitter. The farm has 20,000 apple trees which are used for its products.

Calvados is made from cider that has aged at least one year, then heated twice until distilled, then according to French laws, must be aged at least two years in oak barrels. After 2 years, alcohol content goes from 140 proof to 80 proof. However, the final product is much better and less tannic if it is aged 7-10 years, which is then called “out of proof”. We got to watch the farmer (and father of our guide) using the ancient still outside which still heats the cider with a wood-fired stove. As the distillate cools and runs out to be collected, it is clear, very lightly sweet and strong as a mule kick!

The distillation process

The newly distilled Eau de Vie de Calvados

Young Calvados is used as digestif or as a mixer in cocktails.  The Normans like long, rich meals, and midway through the meal, you are served a glass of young Calvados to prevent “agita”. This practice is called the “Norman Gap”.

Cider producers also make a liquor called pommeau which is mixture of Calvados and apple juice, about 30 proof, which is drunk as an aperitif.  With that, we were finally able to taste the products of the farm.  Their cider was very crisp and dry, and we were able to try it with three local cheeses (on baguette slices, of course!)  The cheeses were Pont L’Véque, Livarot, and Camembert.  We also sampled the Calvados, and some pommeau.  The Calvados was much higher quality than anything I’ve tried before. The pommeau was much sweeter, but would probably make a good mixer in a cocktail.  After making some purchases, our group made its way back to the bus, and then onward to the ship.

Stay tuned, because tomorrow we will be visiting the UNESCO World Heritage site of le Mont Saint-Michel.

Gadding about Greenwich

September 27, 2021:

On September 27^th, Jim and I booked a walking tour of Greenwich with one of our favorite tour companies, London Walks.  www.walks.com To get to Greenwich, we took the Tube (Jubilee Line) to catch the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which runs all through the area around O2 Stadium and the huge new financial district which has sprung up in the area south of the Thames around Canary Wharf.

Our guide for the morning, Fiona, is a registered “Blue Guide”, and she took us first to a park named after St. Alfege. Danes camped here in the early 1000s, and in their raids, they captured the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was held here in Greenwich. Apparently, there was a great delay in raising his ransom, so one night as all the Vikings sat around the fire eating and drinking, they then started tossing their bones at the bishop. Bones turned to stones and then clubs, and it was said that he was “boned” to death.  On the site of his murder, a church was built, called St. Alfege’s, and it was a central fixture in Greenwich for centuries. King Henry VIII was born in the Tudor palace here in Greenwich, and he worshipped at St. Alfege’s church. Henry also celebrated two of his marriages there, and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth were both baptized  there.

The church itself was rebuilt four times; most recently in 1711, with those renovations being overseen by the architect, Hawkesmore. The interior woodwork of the church was carved by Grinling Gibbons. St. Alfege’s was badly damaged in Blitz of London during World War II, but restored. Sadly, only a small piece of the Gibbons carving remains.

St. Alfege’s Church

While we were in the park, Fiona showed us the horse chestnuts lying on the ground, and told us that children call them “conkers”. They play a game where you string the conkers on a line and then take turns trying to conk your opponent’s chestnuts off the line.

Horse Chesnuts

From our spot in the park, we could see the top of the Town Hall, which was originally built in the 1880s. By the 1800s, there was a fair here, which was a very popular day out for Londoners. From the hill, there was an activity mentioned by Dickens in his works called “tumbling”. The game involved running down a hill very fast, and occasionally losing your footing so you tumbled down the hill.  Young men purportedly liked it when girls tried the sport, and fell with their petticoats all askew.

Greenwich Town Hall

There is quite a bit of royal history centered in Greenwich. Although the royal palace at the Tower is just up the river, back in Tudor times, Greenwich was considered to be a more pastoral setting away from the smells and pestilence of London.  Royal courtiers would travel by barge to visit the royal palace here.  The area started to be developed by the Duke of Gloucester inn the late1300s. That family became the house of Tudor. The Duke of Gloucester had a huge library, which he donated to Oxford upon his death. The collection was so large that it became the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 

Henry VIII was born at the royal palace in Greenwich, and spent a great part of his youth there. He was a very athletic man in his young man, and loved to host jousting matches outside the Greenwich palace. However, a jousting match in 1536 resulted in a grave injury to Henry, and he was no longer able to sit a horse or exercise. It was after that he turned into the corpulent fellow we all have seen in paintings.

From the park, Fiona walked us through the Greenwich Market, which has been in the same spot for centuries. Sadly, the pandemic took quite a toll on the vendors, so they are only now starting to come back.

Greenwich Market

Then we walked down to the main waterfront area in Greenwich. The original tea clipper, the Cutty Sark has been restored and floats on a “glass pillow” which allows visitors to view the underside of the ship and the museum beneath. Some of the various figureheads that graced other tea clippers are also on display, but we didn’t have time to see the museum.  “Nanny” is the figurehead on the Curry Sark.

The Cutty Sark resting on her pillow of glass

The Cutty Sark is the last remaining tea clipper in the world today. These ships were designed to have very narrow hulls; originally to save on taxes, but they also became the fastest ships in their day. This was very important because tea got a price premium for being freshest. In fact, there was a bounty for the ship that returned to England the fastest with its load of tea.  Ironically, given the history of the Boston Tea Party, the Cutty Sark was built in America.

From where we are standing on the waterfront, the view up the Thames is a little off kilter because the Thames takes big bend down here in Greenwich. Still, we had a great view of the skyscraper called The Shard on left and the Post Office Tower in center.

 Then we walked into the center of old Greenwich. On the site where the royal palace used to stand is the Royal Naval College. The buildings were originally designed by Sir Christopher Wren (who also designed St. Paul’s Cathedral) and built between 1696 and 1712 to operate as a home for disabled British sailors, and it was used for that purpose until 1869. The buildings were operated as the naval academy from 1873-1998. Today, it is a museum, and looked like it had numerous interesting exhibits, not the least of which was a small nuclear reactor which used to reside in the basement of the college so students could learn who to run nuclear class submarines. The reactor was decommissioned in the 1970s, and was about the size of a large breadbox. 

The decommissioned nuclear reactor

One of the buildings is now a college of music and fine arts. But among the more interesting features of the buildings are a Painted Hall, which was the Refectory (dining hall) for the Sailors Hospital. Queen Mary started the home for the disabled sailors, but did not live to see it finished. The Painted Hall is described as Britain’s Sistine Chapel, and was started in late 1600s, painted by James Thornhill. Interestingly, when repairs were being done to the building in 2017, the contractors found remains of the Tudor Palace beneath the Wren building.

Remains of the old Tudor Palace

We also saw the Royal Chapel. The original burned down, but it was rebuilt in the 1700s. If it looks familiar, it was used in several movies and TV shows, including “4 Weddings and a Funeral”. Benjamin West was the Chapel’s artist, and he was one of founders of Royal Academy of Art.

The Royal Chapel. The paintings of the apostles near the ceiling were done by Benjamin West.

In the courtyard outside the Painted Hall is a frieze also painted by Benjamin West, dedicated to the great British naval captain, Horatio Nelson, who won the Battle of Trafalgar against the French during the Napoleonic Wars. On the outside of the building is a special window, called “Nelson’s Window” which looks onto the courtyard.

The frieze by Benjamin West

Housed in another of the buildings is the Maritime Museum.  Up on a hill overlooking the grounds of the Royal Naval College is the Greenwich Observatory. It is also built on the site of the Greenwich Prime Meridian. Time was not standardized until the1880s, when it became required by needing accurate timetables for railway schedules, but the Greenwich Prime Meridian became the basis for the standardized time system. This line in the photo on the ground is where the Prime Meridian runs through Greenwich.

Prime Meridian

From where we stood in the Greenwich Park, we could see the Royal Observatory on the hill at the back of the park. One of the cool features of the Royal Observatory is a mast on top with a ball. The ball on the mast tells time to the ships in the Thames, so the ball moves to top of the mast at 1:00 p.m. every day. We were fortunate to have timed our visit to see this happen. Time was critical to setting latitude for navigation, so this was a vital function for the ships’ captains. Our tour now over, we walked back to the waterfront for lunch.

The Royal Observatory

It’s one o’clock!

We had lunch at the Trafalgar Tavern, overlooking the Thames. Jim enjoyed some authentic fish and chips, but I just had some really good tomato bisque because we are booked for a great dinner at a restaurant called Galvin la Chapelle in the Spitalfields area of London.

Inside the Trafalgar Tavern

View of the O2 Stadium (fka Millenium Dome)

We squeezed in a small shopping expedition to the Burlington Arcade, just off Bond Street near our hotel. Sadly, the pandemic has not been kind to many of the old-time shopkeepers in this Victorian shopping arcade, and many of the historic shopkeepers have vanished. We did visit one of the longtime stores, a cashmere purveyor called N. Peal, who has operated in this same place since the 1930s, but we found their selection much less adventuresome than in years past.

Jim and I had lucked out on reservations at one of London’s “in” restaurants, called Galvin la Chapelle.  There are three Galvin brothers in the restaurant family. All three were raised in Great Britain, but introduced to France at an early age, and became instant Francophiles, and then great French chefs. There are six restaurants in the Galvin family enterprise, all providing Franco-centric cuisine. This restaurant is located in a very old church. 

We decided to do the tasting menu with wine pairings. Here is the menu:

Our first wine

The melon soup with langoustine.

The gamay wine

The terrine

This was a wine varietal neither of us had tried before, but it paired beautifully with the risotto.

Herby risotto topped with Parmesan foam paired with the Cataratto

Surprise! We tried this wine in Croatia two years ago with Mark & Rebecca. Great choice with the seafood “lasagne”

The crab lasagne

Oops! I’m a lousy food blogger because I keep forgetting to photograph the food before we eat it. The Cumbrian beef was excellent, as you can tell!

This is the last photo since I forgot to photograph the final course!

Stay tuned, because tomorrow we board our ship, the Crystal Endeavor, for a tour of France, Spain and Portugual.

Love Affair with London

September 26, 2021:

Jim and I landed in London on Sept. 26, 2021. After taking our “second day” COVID test, according to current UK rules, we were taken to our hotel, the Connaught, in the Mayfair area of London. This is one of London’s legendary hotels, and has been very graciously updated sometime in the past ten years. The stairway in the entry hall was truly lovely.

Entry hall at the Connaught

The amazing toilet; look at all the buttons on the left!

Our Negronis

While our room was very spacious and lovely, probably the highlight of the accommodation was the space age toilet in the bathroom! Oh, and the welcome cocktail; a pitcher of Negronis which awaited us!

After checking in (and enjoying our Negronis), we walked out to our restaurant, Mimi Mei Fair; a really fun Chinese restaurant not far from our hotel.  As the legend would have it, the restaurant was located in a Georgian townhouse purportedly owned by a Chinese empress, MiMi, the keeper of Chinese culinary secrets.  The interior reminded you of a private club.  One thing we did not know before we got there was that two signature culinary options; the Peking duck and the tasting menu, were to be ordered at least 24 hours ahead of time. Although we missed out on the Peking duck, Jim and I created our own tasting menu. But first, we started with a round of the craft cocktails. I had something called a “Yunnan Pony”, while Jim had a “Chestnut Sour”.

Mayfair

Annabel’s: a private club in Mayfair, raising money to benefit the Amazonian rainforest.

Inside MiMi Meifair’s

We shared an appetizer course with some of MiMi’s signature dishes including the Canadian scallops, the crispy langoustines, and the very colorful Xiao Long Jewels, which were little dumplings, each with a different filling.  For our entrée course, we shared a very non-traditional cashew chicken dish, and a braised pork belly dish. Thank goodness, we had a decent walk back to the hotel to burn some of it off!

The scallops

Langoustines

Xiao Long Jewels