Noirmoutier, Brétagne, Le Mont St Michel

I just got back from vacation, which I spent at an island called Noirmoutier, in lots of different places in Brittany, and at Le Mont St Michel.

My host family's grandparents own a house on Noirmoutier that we borrowed. My host sister, her boyfriend, three close friends, Sarah the American, and I got to chill out on the beach for four days and goof off together. I got sunburned, of course, because I am very white. Otherwise it was not very eventful, at least not with publishable events, except that we did get to witness part of the filming of the second Le Petit Nicolas movie. It was very relaxing and exactly what we needed after a long winter and lots of school stress.

Sarah and I buried in sand:

This is all we could see of the filming: they were making waves with these boats to make it look stormy. We all wonder why they couldn't have just chosen a beach with more waves, but whatever.

After Noirmoutier, we got home and immediately loaded the RV of my host grandparents to go explore Brittany.

The Viaduc of Morlaix

We stopped and explored a lot of beautiful coastal cities: Morlaix, Perros-Guirec, St-Brieuc, Lamballe, and St Malo. All this adventuring took 3 days. 

Perros-Guirec: a port city with lots of pink granite in large improbable boulders on the shore. It's a little spooky and quite beautiful and striking. 

Look at that boulder, just perched on top like a BAMF. Stop! That isn't how physics works!

At Perros-Guirec we ate at the best restaurant I have yet discovered in France. Brittany is famous for their crepes and galettes, which are properly eaten with a mug of Brittany cider. I had a goat cheese-honey-walnut galette followed by a pear-chocolate-whipped cream crepe, and it was really incredible. If you ever find yourself in Perros-Guirec, give me a call and I'll try to find this restaurant again for you.

We also spent a lot of time in random ports that I don't even remember the names of anymore, so here are some pictures:

 

My host mom and I, being the gorgeous models that we naturally are.

My host mom freaking out because she thinks I'm going to fall over the cliff. It was really windy.

Everyone in Brittany has this bumper sticker

We spent the first night in Morlaix parked under a lamp that dripped on our roof all night. The second night we spent with some friends of my host parents who are also furniture merchants and were very accommodating. Their property is big and beautiful:

The third night we spent with some other friends, entertaining their 5-year-old daughter. They served us Breizh Coke, which is apparently a special kind of Coca Cola in Brittany.

The third day we spent in Saint Malo, the Corsaire City. 

Here's some traditional sea chanties from St Malo for you to listen to while you scroll. This one has pretty pictures, too.

It's a city that you've probably heard of because it's an important port and therefore has been crucial in many wars. It's a walled city, clearly very well defended.

The ramparts

With old architecture

This is the name of a café in St Malo which means: The local coffeeshop down the street at one end of the city opposite the port La Java.

They have interesting deco choices.

 The next day we were at Le Mont St Michel, the second most visited site in France after everything that's in Paris. I have to admit, I tend to be really bothered by touristy things, and le Mont is probably the most touristy thing I've ever visited. Paris is at least a city: there are real people who live there, and it is the political, economic, and cultural capital of France. Even if it's very touristy in certain neighborhoods, you can get away from it if you explore the city alone and on foot like I did. But le Mont only has a few monks who actually live there, and everyone else is a tourist. The whole thing is museums and restaurants and gift shops and it sort of put me in a bad mood. But it was nonetheless beautiful.

The construction going on was not very photogenic.

A real live monk!

 

So that was le Mont St Michel. Beautiful, historical, fascinating, and frustratingly touristy. In general I preferred the roadtrip through Brittany over our final destination because it showed me a lot more of France than I've seen so far and gave me a feel for the different culture they have over there.

For example, their traditional garb involves funny hats:

And bilingual road signs, in French and in.. Breton!

No, I did not actually pass by Brest. I stole this photo off the internet because I forgot to take a picture myself. Here is a map of my actual route:

And then when you consider that I've also seen Le Mans, Angers, Nantes, Blois, La Rochelle, Méribel (Albertville), and I'll soon be off to Toulouse, I've seen a fair chunk of France! Not too shabby.

Coming up soon: a philosophical post that I'm having trouble writing because it's about nothing in particular.