Castles!

For the next day of our France trip, we visited a screen saver. A fairy tale. A place that if you saw it in a fantasy television show or movie, you'd say, "that looks cool, but nothing like that would actually exist." Mont-Saint-Michel.

The existence of this place dates back to the 8th century, when an island near the coast was first used for a church. Except... it isn't always an island; as the tides go in and out, the location can be reached for part of the day by a land bridge that emerges from the receding waters. This made the location highly defensible. It took many centuries for the abbey and surrounding village to be built, and in modern days a more durable bridge was added to connect to the island for all but the most extreme "supertide" every two decades or so.

There's a lot to experience in a compact area. Of course, there's the fantastical visuals of just approaching the place.

Then there's meandering about the cobblestone streets of the walled city, almost like a visit to what seems like the most authentic Renaissance festival you'll ever encounter.

Then there are the spectacular views from the abbey ramparts. 

Finally there's the tour of the abbey itself. The interior of the building is all the more impressive considering when it was built and how long it has endured.

There was even an interesting art exhibit, showcasing a beautifully detailed map of the area woven as a tapestry...

... by the imposing "Mimi Cake":

As wonderful as Mont-Saint-Michel is, it is quite the journey away from Paris. We'd ventured as far from the capital city as we planned to go, and now it was time to slowly work our way back. We were staying in the Loire Valley that evening, but had allotted ourselves the day to get there.

For lunch, we decided we really wanted to find some savory crepes. We'd been wanting that for a meal for the entire trip, but had only managed to find places serving sweet desserts (invariably, after a satisfying meal that needed no encore). I searched for a place along our route, and at random found Crêperie  Tivabro in the town of Fougères. 

I regret that I have no picture of Fougères -- and the fact that I don't feels emblematic of the way we could just happen upon something amazing on this trip. There's a huge walled castle dating back almost a thousand years, right there in the center of town. We were looking for crepes, we're driving by modern stores, and then for a bit through old and narrow streets... then we just turn a corner and there it is, a sprawling medieval castle. Because of course there would be. So commonplace and expected that I somehow don't even manage to get a picture.

The crepes were everything we'd been hoping for, though. I had a delectable one with ham, cheese, and a "mirror egg" (sunny side up egg) on top.

Our drive then took us through Le Mans, where we stopped a while to stretch our legs and look around for a bit. And, of course, we turned a corner and discovered yet another sprawling cathedral that on any other trip might well have been the architectural highlight.

By the early evening, we reached our destination in the heart of the Loire Valley, Château de Perreux. We weren't just visiting this castle; it was our hotel for the next two nights. Our room was on the second floor of a corner tower, with a lovely view of the grounds.

 

The place had everything from garage of classic cars, canoes you could take out onto the river, and a debonair concierge with suggestions and his own hand-made strawberry jam to serve at breakfast. We had dinner in the nearby city of Amboise at a French-Moroccan restaurant, then ended the evening somewhat early. We had a particularly early start planned the next day.