After leaving our Hastings accomodation we headed for Salisbury. We ended up spending the whole day in Salisbury Cathedral. We did a tour of the cathedral and then at midday we did the tour that went up the spire. I was pretty proud of myself because we had to climb up REALLY high up tiny spiral staircases. The views were absolutely spectacular.
We then spent the night in Gosport so that Wayne could meet my cousin Ian and his family. In the morning we visited Stonehenge. A new visitor centre which houses a small museum has been built since my last visit. It provided interesting details about how the rocks were transported hundreds of miles before being put in place (some of them from Wales) as well as the archaeological finds that have been made there.
We then made our way back to Portsmouth where we boarded the overnight ferry to St Malo.
The intra muros part of town is beautiful with little streets winding around inside the walls but unfortunately many of the shops were closed and the crepe that I was hankering to have for breakfast didn’t eventuate. So we picked up our little hire car and headed to Rennes to see Jorgia. She and Wayne were pleased to see each other after almost twelve months.
On Friday Jorgia, Wayne and I went into Laval. This was the city near where Jorgia started her year as an au pair before moving to Rennes.
We spent a lovely weekend with Jorgia. On Saturday we went to Mont St Michel. This is a spectacular spot and we had a glorious day for it. We climbed the many steps to the abbey. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared in 708 to St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel's instruction until Michael burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger. While the abbey itself is not the most beautiful I have seen, the cloisters are probably my favourite place in the world… I have a bit of a thing for cloisters actually. As we were leaving we were a bit peckish so we bought some sweet biscuits from “La Mère Poulard.” The restaurant of the same name is famous for its omelettes. The eggs are beaten in copper bowls and then cooked over a fire of oak tree wood. But there are also shops which sell an assortment of sweet biscuits. Jorgia, hungry for a snack, took out a biscuit as we were leaving the Mont and all of a sudden I felt this gust of air by my head and looked up to see a giant gull snatching the remaining half of her biscuit from her hand. For people in Australia, these aren’t the smallish white seagulls we are used to, they are enormous!!! Jorgia remained incredibly calm and no doubt provided some entertainment for the many tourists entering Mont St Michel. We certainly had our share of laughs over it for the rest of the afternoon.
On the Sunday we went to the Normandy landing beaches. Arromanches is a sleepy little village (at least in winter) but it is the site to which the Allied Forces floated a fake harbour across the channel in order to provide the troops who landed on D-day with equipment and provisions. Some of this “Mulberry Harbour” is still in existence today. We also went up behind Arromanches to Longue-sur-Mer to see the German gun emplacements. The Germans sure did a good job on concrete.
Next we travelled to Bayeux where Jorgia and I went to the museum which houses the famous Bayeux tapestry (no photos allowed). This “tapestry” is actually an embroidery which was commissioned by William the Conquerer’s brother. This means the tapestry is almost 1000 years old. It tells the story of the betrayal of Harold II and the resulting Battle of Hastings in 1066 when William the Conquerer took the throne of England. This amazing piece of work stretches for 70 continuous metres.
Our final stop for the day before returning to Rennes was the American Memorial at Colville-sur-Mer. This memorial is dedicated to the American casualties of World War II in the Normandy region. The white crosses and stars of David stretch as far as the eye can see. The site itself is incredibly peaceful and these soldiers certainly have a beautiful final resting spot.
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