France 2025 - Day 4 (June 4)

     Since we did not have anywhere to travel to and everything we could do was close by, we slept in until nearly 9:30AM.  What woke us up was the sound of airplanes flying all around us.  When I opened the windows I saw four C-130 transport planes doing fly-bys.  I was able to grab a few pictures of them as we were getting ready.  We headed down to the La Mere Poulard restaurant, a place with world famous omelets.  Since we were up early enough, there was no wait and soon we were treated to a culinary delight.  The restaurant was opened in 1888 by Annette Poulard and was initially named  "A l'omelette renommee de la mere Poulard."  She served a hearty meal to the Catholic pilgrims in the form of a soufflé omelette cooked over an open wood fire.  The dish was served in a hand-hammered copper bowl and became the signature dish of the restaurant.  

Our Wednesday wake up call

C-130 outbound

Sleepy eyes after that huge meal

I ordered "L'Omelette du Fromager", the cheesemaker's Omelette with creams of Pont-l'Eveque and 18-month aged Cheddar, onions and marinated raw vegetables.  Jennie ordered "Poulet fernier sauce facon-vallee d'Auge", farm chicken sautéed in the Auge Valley style.  I'll be honest, I was disappointed at first in my selection of the 42 euro dish.  When it was served, it was very thin and nearly runny.  The texture turned me off at first.  However, the longer it sat on the plate, it firmed up and the taste was incredible.  The price of breakfast was crazy, but I'm glad we did it at least one time.

We took a walk down the boardwalk to an open field where many sheep were pasturing.  On our drive to the Mont, Jennie had said she wanted to go out and see the sheep.  As we were walking, we were greeted to the sun.  That quickly changed to mostly cloudy and periods of intermittent showers.  The sheep in front of the Mont are an iconic look and found in calendars, postcards, and prints in all the gift shops.  We found a place to enter the pasture and worked hard to dodge all of the goodies left behind by the sheep.  Once we got to them, they were remarkably calm and disinterested in us.  This allowed for some great photos and video.

The sun finally showed itself

Tides out.

Beauty and the beach

I like old church graveyards

Green, green, grass.

Million dollar pasture

Flower shoes for the pasture

The old man of the flock

Black sheep of the family

After spending some time roaming the pasture, we made our way back to the Mont and found ourselves part of a World War II veterans event.  They brought in 6 busloads of veterans and had cleared a space on the beach for some events.  Those events turned out to be paratrooper landings in remembrance of the D-Day events that took place just to the Northeast of the Mont.  Against the backdrop of the sea and sky surrounding Mont St-Michel, US Army Green Berets with the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group(Airborne) conducted a commemorative operation.  It was amazing to see this take place.  You had French school kids, waving American flags, and singing the National Anthem.  There were 53 veterans that were there.  It was difficult to get pictures of all of them, but one burst of pictures that stood out to me were taken during the playing of the National Anthems of France and the USA.  A group of these veterans wanted to stand up but couldn't due to their condition.  They sat in wheelchairs, saluting through both of those songs.  One of the guys I grabbed in the photos was F/O Daniel Keel, a Tuskegee Airman.  He was born in September 1922, making him nearly 103 today.  He graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering and was drafted in 1943.  He attended pilot training obtaining ratings in the T-6 Texan and B-25 bomber in preparation for serving in the Pacific.  The war ended before his deployment.  He was discharged in 1946 and is one of three black officers to earn three aeronautical ratings during WWII.  Given how messed up we are right now and how polarized we are, I can only imagine what Mr. Keel would say to our current government leaders today. He grew up in a polarized culture, but still answered the call to serve his country.  You can read about all of these veterans at the link below.

Veterans Attending The 2025 Events

I am not the sentimental type, but I couldn't help but reflect on those veterans who responded when their country called them.  The reality is had they not stepped up, France today would German speaking, along with Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, and Greece.  These kids did what needed to be done.  I am not so sure our country would stand up again to answer that call.

During the French National Anthem

Old Glory flying in Normandy

Green beret incoming

After our outing, we headed to a restaurant for crepes and wine.  We had a cold bottle of a white bourdeaux and some Nutella filled crepes.  We spent the rest of the day visiting the shops and buying gifts for the kids left at home.  Tomorrow we take the train to Lisieux.

One more view of St. Michael

Performing ordinary work with a supernatural motive 
could lead to sanctification

The aggressive locals

France 2025 - Day 3 (June 3)

     Today was the first day we had to grab our bags and travel to another place.  We had a car pick us up a 7:30AM to the Gare Monteparnasse.  We were scheduled on a TGV train from Paris to Rennes in the first class section.  The TGV train, known as a bullet train, travels are nearly 180MPH and is a very good way to get around.  When we arrived at Rennes, we had to wait for an Intercities train to take us to the town of Ponterson.  The Intercities trains are not quite as fast and they do not come with reservations for you or your bags.  Fortunately for us, the train originated in Rennes so finding space was easy.

TGV train at 300 KM/h

Jennie sleeping like a baby

All smiles before we saw the stairs

Once we arrived in Ponterson, we took all of our luggage over to a local bus for the 15 minute drive to the pedestrian walkaway at Mont St.-Michel.  Le Mont is one of France's most iconic landmarks - a place where history, architecture, and nature intertwine in stunning harmony.  Tradition says that the Archangel Michael appeared to Aubert, Bishop of Avranches in 708AD and commanded him to build a church on the mount.  By the 11th century, the Benedictine abbey crowned the mount and Mont St-Michel grew with a maze of monastic buildings, crypts, chapels, and fortifications.  Mont St-Michel is known for its dramatic tides, among the highest in Europe.  In the span of a few hours, the sea can retreat over 10 miles and then rush back in at an astonishing speed.  There are several times in the year the Mont is not accessible at high tide.

Tradition speaks about the Sword of St. Michael which stretches from Ireland to Israel.  Along a perfectly aligned path are seven sacred sites devoted to St. Michael.  These sites are:  Skellg Michael - Ireland; St. Michael's Mount - England; Mont St-Michel - France; Sacra di San Michele - Italy; Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo - Italy; Monastery of Panagia Spillani - Greece; Stella Maris Monastery/Mount Carmel - Israel.  The abbey at Mont St-Michel is served by the Monastic Fraternity, a religious association of Catholic monks and nuns who live in urban communities.  They were founded in 1975 in Paris and are comprised of 50 brothers and 150 sisters.

Once we hopped off the bus, we had to walk our bags to the Mont and realized that all those heavy bags were going to need to be carried up the steps.  There were 75 steps to get up to the hotel room we were staying at.  Lugging three loaded bags was a pain, literally.  We dropped the bags at the office for storage and set off to explore.  We stopped at a pub for lunch, linguine bolognese,  and a few beers.  After we finished, we headed up the path to the parish church of St. Pierre.  The church was staffed by a cassock wearing priest who was one of most intentional priests I have seen.  When he distributed Holy Communion, the amount of reverence and care he had was inspiring.  The parish has a huge side chapel dedicated to Saint Michael.  

A nice Belgian beer

More pasta

After getting the key to our room we were treated to a huge room (for Europe).  We had a great view out our windows to the walkway and  tides.  The abbey was open until 6PM, so we decided to trek up all the steps to visit.  They say 350 stairs to reach the top.  That seemed like the right number for me; for Jennie it seemed like 3,500.  She pushed through and we found ourselves inside.  The Mont, originally known as Mont Tombe, was inhabited by the Celtics before being conquered by the Romans.  The abbey church began construction in 1023 and became a major pilgrimage center for Catholics.   The Mont withstood English sieges and served as a prison during the French Revolution being known as the Bastille of the Seas.  It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979.

A stormy looking sunset

A different angle

Sunrise on Le Mont

Our favorite pub

St. Joan of Arc, Ora Pro Nobis

Parish church of St. Pierre

Shrine to St. Michael

Driving out the darkness

Such a beautiful altar

Our view after climbing the 350 steps

The design and acoustics were 
perfect for plain chant

View from the cloister

Guest hall

A side chapel in the church 
crypt

The wheel was manned by prisoners
and was used to raise up goods from
the bottom of the Month

Clover growing outside the cloister

Garden outside the abbey

We were told these stairs lead to a place 
considered the holiest on the entire Mont

Room where the monks worked

St. Michael sits atop the abbey

After our tour was over, we stopped by the pub for some dinner.  I mentioned to Jennie that they had Vespers with the Monastic Fraternity of Jerusalem that was open to the public, but it required trekking back up the steps.  We first encouraged the Fraternity in Paris in 2018 when we stumbled into a dark church at 6AM and found the community chanting Lauds.  She agreed with that plan and we went back to the abbey church.  Vespers, chanted in French, took 50 minutes.  It truly was like heaven on earth.  Afterwards, we were let out of the church and went back to our room for the night.