10 August ’05, Wednesday. le Mont St. Michel Abbey
First thing this morning (about 10:30), we headed onto Bayaux and found the internet café. We were so far behind in touching base with the email, we were afraid that we would never catch up. First, I want to say thanks for all the letters (emails). We really appreciate you taking the time to write. Second, sorry we didn’t answer them right away. Unfortunately, the key board at this internet café wasn’t one that we could change over from the French board to the “English” board. The key locations aren’t too much different, but those that are make it tough to write a return. We will catch up soon, I promise. Third, seeing as how this internet café was the only one around for miles, they were charging a ton…$6 Euros ($7.80) per hour… Completing that, we headed back up to the coast. Our first stop was at La Pointe Du Hoc and Grandcamp-Maisy. This was a vital position for the Nazis, as they could fire across to Omaha and Utah beaches from there. Besides, they thought that this position high at the top of the cliffs overlooking the sea was just about impossible to attack from the sea by the Allied troops. Fortunately, two battalions of Rangers using hook and rope ladders climbed these cliffs and completely caught the Germans off guard. It also helped the Rangers that the Air Force bombers had almost totally destroyed the heavy artillery before they arrived. It wasn’t a piece of cake for the Rangers, as it did take over 2 days and with them starting with 225 men, they only had 90 remaining and many of these were wounded. The history of D-Day really is something to read and of course to remember. From there we headed on down toward Saint Lo and then to Coutances, Avranches, and then to La Mont St Michel. We were about 15km (about 9 miles) from La Mont St Michel, and we could see it in the distance. What an amazing site. It is a “rocky, cone-shaped islet”, in the Gulf of Saint Malo and is connected by a causeway with the mainland. It is a Benedictine abbey and has some small houses and shops that are after every penny you may have in your pocket. The abbey and the other “monastic” buildings date some as far back as the 13 century. There was a small abbey that began in 966 on the same spot. It has been a long time since we have been to a “site” that was totally crowed with tourists. Every parking location was taken and even those that weren’t parking locations had cars, campers, caravans, and buses in them. The traffic was bumper to bumper and barely moving, and the foot traffic was amazing. We pulled off to the side of the road, I jumped out and ran across the street, quickly took 2 pictures, ran back, made a “U-Turn” (I’m still thanking the guy who let us in line going back), and headed the heck out of town… What a mess… Seeing as how we were going to camp there, we had to review our plans… We headed on down the coast and have finally settled into Dinan. We understand they have a wonderful “Walled” town on a river, so tomorrow….Dinan and hopefully an internet to up-load at…
First thing this morning (about 10:30), we headed onto Bayaux and found the internet café. We were so far behind in touching base with the email, we were afraid that we would never catch up. First, I want to say thanks for all the letters (emails). We really appreciate you taking the time to write. Second, sorry we didn’t answer them right away. Unfortunately, the key board at this internet café wasn’t one that we could change over from the French board to the “English” board. The key locations aren’t too much different, but those that are make it tough to write a return. We will catch up soon, I promise. Third, seeing as how this internet café was the only one around for miles, they were charging a ton…$6 Euros ($7.80) per hour… Completing that, we headed back up to the coast. Our first stop was at La Pointe Du Hoc and Grandcamp-Maisy. This was a vital position for the Nazis, as they could fire across to Omaha and Utah beaches from there. Besides, they thought that this position high at the top of the cliffs overlooking the sea was just about impossible to attack from the sea by the Allied troops. Fortunately, two battalions of Rangers using hook and rope ladders climbed these cliffs and completely caught the Germans off guard. It also helped the Rangers that the Air Force bombers had almost totally destroyed the heavy artillery before they arrived. It wasn’t a piece of cake for the Rangers, as it did take over 2 days and with them starting with 225 men, they only had 90 remaining and many of these were wounded. The history of D-Day really is something to read and of course to remember. From there we headed on down toward Saint Lo and then to Coutances, Avranches, and then to La Mont St Michel. We were about 15km (about 9 miles) from La Mont St Michel, and we could see it in the distance. What an amazing site. It is a “rocky, cone-shaped islet”, in the Gulf of Saint Malo and is connected by a causeway with the mainland. It is a Benedictine abbey and has some small houses and shops that are after every penny you may have in your pocket. The abbey and the other “monastic” buildings date some as far back as the 13 century. There was a small abbey that began in 966 on the same spot. It has been a long time since we have been to a “site” that was totally crowed with tourists. Every parking location was taken and even those that weren’t parking locations had cars, campers, caravans, and buses in them. The traffic was bumper to bumper and barely moving, and the foot traffic was amazing. We pulled off to the side of the road, I jumped out and ran across the street, quickly took 2 pictures, ran back, made a “U-Turn” (I’m still thanking the guy who let us in line going back), and headed the heck out of town… What a mess… Seeing as how we were going to camp there, we had to review our plans… We headed on down the coast and have finally settled into Dinan. We understand they have a wonderful “Walled” town on a river, so tomorrow….Dinan and hopefully an internet to up-load at…
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