Mount St Michel, France

 

a picture of Mont St Michel, beautifully composed by JS
we only brought one camera to visit this place, while the other one was left in Paris
been using Paris as our base this trip.....even the bellboy at the hotel know us that we'll leave heaps of luggage for them as we journeyed to other cities and countries


I alwiz joked with them in my horrible french, not to hurt their backs with my super-heavy-can-die luggage bags *all 8 pieces*
they shrugged it off and luffed out loud coz it's part of their job

Since I dun have a camera, an iPhone can do too :P
make use of wat u have and surprisingly the iPhone 4s takes fantastic pics


oh...I should re-phrase my sentence...
with such FANTASTIC VIEW any tom dick and harry can snap amazing pics with any tom dick and harry gadgets :P
agree?? :))))

my friend told me it looked like Disneyland hahahahahaha
indeed....prollie Walt Disney got inspired by it?


Mount St Michel had been a fort since the ancient time 
against the...well who else....the English
coz this sea = English Channel
and from the top of this mountain, u can see Southern Britain

Okie Dokie.....time to scale the mountain!!!
yipeeeeee


I can say we've almost scaled every mountain we could during this trip
taken all sorts of jelly-fying cable car rides
eaten everything
drunk the best wines
hiked and climbed for the 1st time in my life
very rewarding :)))))


Looks like mission impossible
hey Mr. Sea Gull, can u take me up there????


the entire place was built around this rocky island back in the 6th century
due to erosion the surrounding rocks gave in to sea water and only stronger ones like granites remained
this erosion process took millions of years since the dinousaur age


so basically u r marveling at the creation of GOD and Nature
the rock island I meant....the rest of the structure was built by human's hands *of coz*
we are given the most precious thing = LIFE
with it, we can do a lot of wonders 
so folks never give up in life :)))))

Mr. Sea Gull tried to fly but the wind was too strong
he just flapped his wings and the wind carried him motionless like this
so cute :P


it's like flying a kite....where it stays motionlessly on the sky
but this one has got an altitude of 30 cm above ground *remember Johnny English and his helicopter ride?"

and Monkey must not give up too
started walking towards the fort at the top like a hero with JS tailgating behind

I felt like I was transformed back to medieval time

everything changes but nothing changes.....sounds familiar?

it's like ur lips changed, but ur kisses never age

as I stomped my feet happily I was brought back in time

to experience the same feeling as those ancient ppl did

how they went about life on this lil small rocky island

horses galloping on the rocky pavement

the sounds and sights of children running

and the harsh weather they endured here

Today, it's thronged with tourists and pilgrims around the world

rows after rows of souvenirs shop selling pointy pokey Mount St Michel memorabilia

this reminded me of Duomo in Milan case back in 2009

*click here to read how farnie it was*

so I guess souvenirs can be harmful after all huh?

While JS was tail-gating me.....Monkey was tail-gating this doggie

it was so wet and slippery, she fell down so many times

poor doggie

in fact the best shoes to visit Mount St Michel is actually gummy boots

coz this place is alwiz full of seawater :P

well u never know

admiring the rocks

stacked by men

survived through the centuries and WARS

I touched it and they felt so cold

it's as though it's telling me the stories it endured and survived

Bee Boo Bee Boo Bee Boo *sound of the ambulance's siren*
huffed puffed
taking a 30 seconds break


JS was rolling his eyes and comparing me with those white hair aunties and balding uncles
"look at them!!! they r so much fitter than u!!!!"
grrrrRRRRrrrrrrrrrr

Climbing the last bit before reaching up to the abbey

due to the weather condition, the rocky walls are alwiz covered in moss

wow wat a giant water tap!!!!!!!!

is this for the fire brigade????

and wat a tiny door

were they hobbits????

huffed and puffed

okie.....almost there.....the last few steps to go!!!!!

huffed....puffed......

u can see there's lesser ppl on the pic as we ascend...coz many of them gave up halfway and sat on those benches

ekekekekkekekeekkekeeekek

so folks, visit and walk the Earth while u care fit and able :)))))))

Okie to be fair....I took some short breaks too :P

pffffttttttttttttt

tee hee heee

what????

finally.....

WOW~~~~~~ I was so scared but still wanna look down

the mainland with a temporary connection/bridge to the rock island

this will be destroyed soon bcoz the government will be building a small pedestrian hanging bridge to connect this small island

They realised with this connection road, it has jeopardised the environment

water and sediments sat on the bank

nothing moves....

really bad for the environment

a small stream of water heading out to the sea

years ago, u can only reach this island by foot when the tide is low

due to tourism and commercialisation they have built the connecting road

and now they have decided to destruct it

well.....

let's hope they'll find a solution soon before all the sediments gonna accumulate here till Mount St Michel is an island-no-more!!!!!

the Abbey of Mount St Michel

the gold statue of Archangel Michael at the top of the spire

he was mentioned in Christianity, Judaism and Islam

it has alwiz provoked such curiosity in me when it comes to these 3 religions

a friend actually encouraged me to do more readings and learning on those 3

being a lazy me...I opt to visit Israel anytime instead :P

ok ok ok I've promised u, I'll go and do more readings about it :)))))

jelly-fied terrified horrified look

:P

GAH!!!!!!

those ppl down there were so tiny :P

on a clear day u can see the southern port of Britain

it's such a strategic point as a fort

no wonder it was never conquered even during the hundred year wars

with smaller fort posts surrounding this tiny island

"Hey look we can walk down there!!! I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go!!!!!"

JS -_-"

we spent about half an hour up here

speechless

nothing to say when ur mind, eyes and soul were busy absorbing all these

the winter chill air hit our face

moisture and humidity fr the sea coated our hair till it's damp

beyond this....we stood motionlessly staring at the view

:)))))))))))

JS said if he's an soldier, he wanna be stationed on this post/corner

hahahahahahahahaha

coz it has got the best view of both sun rise and sun set

but I was bz pointing at those small lil ppl down there walking on the sandy banks/beach

and yelled..."hey come back!!!! the tide is gonna come up soon!!!! come back!!!!"

JS: "Don't think they understand english.....someone will get them...dun u kepoh."

next to the abbey was a beautiful courtyard with an even more beautiful garden

this garden has got a beautiful view too...

wat a bliss

I just wanna sit down here with a cup of coffee and a good book

perhaps it's time I get down to those books on religion

just the right ambience

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

okie don't worry, there was a sheet of glass there

else the wind alone can blow me outta this courtyard

trying his hands on some mechanism

it actually moved!!!!!

shhhhh pls don't tell the caretaker of this place...

we were not supposed to touch anything :P

the wheels is a pulley system to transport things from the bottom of the rock island up here

it has got a wooden track

Later, we explored the whole place including nooks and corner where no tourists go to
its beautiful herb garden
its storage
catacombs
inside the medieval abbey
basically everywhere


I'm still as mischievous as alwiz
since young I'll walked all over my school which was an old convent
including areas forbidden to anyone
coz there's just too many ghost stories that certain corners were sealed....
but this Monkey....tsk tsk tsk....she's the GREATEST GHOST in school lar!!!!

then we arrived at the back door of the rocky island...
"Hey look....more paths to more places....let's go!!!!"

leaving civilisation behind, which was pretty medieval as u can see fr the pic above
both JS & Monkey walked down to have better look and feel of the English Channel

then JS stopped Monkey
nope...he didn't see any ghosts or some dead ancient warriors without his head

it was this....DANGER KEEP OUT!!!

we checked our respective watches...and saw that there's only one more hour left before the TIDE comes in!!!!!!

yea there's a tidal schedule/table, u must alwiz check before going anywhere around this island

and that includes parking ur car at the right place

u dun want it to go drowning in the sea water...

insurance dun pay u know!!!!

the Tide comes up to this level 2x a day

there's 2 tides a day

well if u wanna read more about tidal system, pls google it

certain seas in the world has got one tide a day

while some don't even have TIDE at all!!!!!

but on a normal one it's usually 2x

at the back of the island there's more post guards tower like this
with really large hooks to anchor big ships
so this was a dock back then
:))))
I'm so glad we walked here and discover these


only set back was the sand was soft and muddy
there's a lot of warnings of quick sand
so we didn't wanna take the risk
after all there's only 2 of us back here and even if we yelled, no one can hear us except Mr. Sea Gull

so we watched sun set together
and watch the tide comes in
:))))))))

what a beautiful sight......
aaaaaAAaaaaaaaa


later we hurried ourselves to catch the last bus back to Rennes
else we gonna be stranded on this rocky island for the nite
the last bus leaves at 5.30pm


What a memorable journey up to Mount St Michel
We were so happy to be here :)))))
and hope u had enjoyed this posting


for more readings, go to their official website:
www.ot-mountsaintmichel.com