That One Time Alaina went to Paris: Crepes, Chiens, and . . . Kilts??

So the first thing we saw today when we went to Mont-St-Michel, across the street from where we parked the bus, was a bunch of these guys:

There were about seven of them, each one with different colors and designs, painted very beautifully. So I was like, sweet! Take a picture of me on it!

. . . . Darn.

Also of note: while we were waiting for the shuttle to take us out to where we were going, our program director talked to us about William the Conqueror more (the guy from the tapestry yesterday) and his daughter Lizzie (who’s about five or six) asked, “Wait, are we related to him?”

And he said, “yeah, he’s your ancestor.”

“Whoooooooah.”

Then one of the boys in our group said, “That makes you Lizzie the Conqueror!”

And she got this really evil look on her face and just went, “Yessss!”

Ah, Lizzie. A child after my own heart.

Okay, so a shuttle came after that to take us to Mont-St-Michel. But, I hear the unexperienced traveler say, "what is Mont-St-Michel? You’ve said it twice and I still have no idea what it is!" Well, worry not. This is Mont-St-Michel:

. . .

Um, wait, that’s a picture of Rapunzel’s kingdom from Tangled, that’s not right at all. Oops! Here’s the real picture:

. . . .

Oh.

Okay.

No big deal.

I just spent my morning hanging out on an island that looks like it belongs in a freaking Disney movie.

This wasn’t actually a castle, though; it was a monastery. Or an abbey? Monks live in monasteries, right? Anyway, it was a place where monks lived, and parts of it were nearly a thousand years old. Originally, the only way on or off was by a causeway that was only available at low tide, so if you needed to get off at high tide, you were fresh out of luck. Our tour guide was French and very sassy, and she explained to us that the workers who built this place had to do so by hand, “with no electricity. You, there, would you like to live in a house with no electricity? No? You would not make a very good monk.”

She was so funny. But one thing that I really like that she said was that these people weren’t building this place for comfort, or for recognition, and they didn’t want to make a place that would last 30 or 40 years before it had to be rebuilt, as we often do today. According to her, they were building it for the eternities. I really liked that phrase, and it has made me think about how I can apply that mentality to my own life. What I’m doing with my time, how I choose to live my life—am I building myself for the eternities?

Anyway. Check out that architecture!

My favorite random picture that I took is probably this one. Look at this grumpy old bird.

Mina, that one was for you.

Once again, pictures don’t really do this place justice. It was so massive, with steps winding up around the island it was built on, and all these little shops lining the crammed streets near the base. Guess what other picture I took that doesn’t do any justice to real life? This one.

This. Oh. My. Goodness. LOOK AT THAT DOG! ITS FLOPPY TONGUE! ITS BIG HEAD! ITS DROOPY SMILE!! AAAAAAAAHHH!!!

10/10 best dog, would dog again.

(Maddie’s cute too.)

After our tour we had to head back to the bus pretty fast, so I just had time to grab a sandwich and a crepe chocolat and run to the shuttle back into town with them. That meant my crepe was cold by the time I got to actually eat it, but still good. Yeah. Still good.

Now check out this beautiful ocean view one more time, drink it in—cause now we’re off to St. Malo!

All I could think of when I saw this sea port with all the boats was that shot at the beginning of the Gilligan’s Island theme song where the S.S. Minnow first leaves the port. (Thanks a lot, Gilligan.)

Also, take a look at this cute carousel! The one at the Eiffel Tower was bigger, but other than that this one looks almost the same.

Oooh, la la, please admire my excellent pano-taking skills.

Oooh, la la, admire the super old dusty French books we found in a tiny French bookstore that made me want to hug the shelves and never leave.

Oooh, la la, admire . . . wait, what?

Sir? Why don’t you have a shirt on? Sir? Sir?? This is a public place, sir, and you are wearing nothing but a kilt??? Sir????

Yeah, so that was special. You go, random dude, live ya life.

The beach here was beautiful as well. So calming, especially since we had three and a half hours to just walk around St. Malo with no scheduled place to be. I loved it.

There’s me, Quincy and Skye for your viewing pleasure! Look at the water out there, so blue. A+.

After a nice long time wandering around, we decided to get some dinner! Well, some of us wanted dinner. Others were still full from lunch and only wanted smoothies. All the food was so ridiculously well presented, though. I ordered fish soup, and look what they gave me!

Just a tiny cast-iron pot with cheese and croutons and curry paste, and a little crustacean to keep me company! No big deal.

Unfortunately, the look was probably the best part of that meal, as I found that I was not really a fan of the soup. There weren’t any chunks in it, so it felt vaguely like eating mystery stew, and also the texture was not very appetizing—like they had taken a bunch of silt and sand and poured it into hot water and then mixed it with something fishy tasting. Not my favorite. But it is always good to try new things, and I’m glad I did!

Also, this is the name and logo of the place where we ate:

Café Licorne, or the Unicorn Café (as you could probably guess). It just reminded me of Kelsy and her obsession with unicorns.

After dinner we had just enough time to see one more thing before we had to get back to the bus. I went with Scarlet to see the St. Malo cathedral.

Now take a moment with me to stare at this, one of my favorite things I’ve seen so far.

Okay, I know you’re probably like, “oh, more stained glass. That’s pretty, I guess.” But no. My camera doesn’t do justice to what it really looked like. You don’t know. You don’t know how gorgeous it was in person. Seriously, I gasped when I walked in. First of all, it was giant, and it made the whole area around it glow blue like we were underwater. And the longer I looked at it the prettier it became. I probably could have stayed there and looked at it for, like, an hour, but the cathedral closed about fifteen minutes after we got there so we had to leave.

Seriously, look at it, though. SO PRETTY!

At that point it was time for us to get back on the bus and head to our hotel. We got in pretty early, which was nice. Anna and I watched Tangled, since we were in such a Tangled mood after Mont-St-Michel.

Quick side note before I wrap this up: for the three nights that we’ve been at hotels, I have noticed a steady decline in quality. Our first hotel was really nice; our second one was okay; the one for Thursday night was (pardon my Mormon French) absolute crap. The bathrooms were disgusting (and they were communal bathrooms out in the hall), there was still hair on the bedsheets from the last time somebody slept there, and there was this great big window in our room on the ground floor that somebody could have easily climbed through to murder us. It was super sketch.

However, I think that with all the pretty things I got to see today, I can’t really complain. I’m still pretty happy with life!

Song for today: Ne Me Quitte Pas, by Jacques Brel. No real reason behind it, I just like it.