Back to Aug 22 and dinner with Jonhan and Anna Mieke. Johan is Dad's cousin (their mother's were sisters) and over the years they have stayed in touch. Johan now lives in Normandy on a hobby farm with his partner Anna Mieke in a renovated 150 year old home. Our B&B at Le Luot is not to far from their farm and so they drove there to meet us and to escort us back to their home for dinner. We had a very pleasant evening with them. The boys fed the chickens and rabbits with Anna Mieke and Johan introduced us to a French apertif and his favourite French wine. Ask Jonas about "chop chop, cous cous""

Wednesday August 23 was our day for Mont St. Michel. As we were eating breakfast, in walks Anna Mieke! She joined us for coffee and said that they really enjoyed dinner with us last night and would we come back tonight was well! Of course, we accepted.

On the way there Johan and Anna Mieke encouraged us to stop at another German cemetary at Mount-de-Huisnes which they both said was very beautiful. There are just under 12,000 solider buried at this memorial which is very unique in that it is a two tiered circle. There are 180 remains in each crypt and there are 36 crypts on each level in 360 degrees. Very unique design. What we noticed were that many of the soliders were older (one was 57). During the latter part of the war Germany Perhaps many of these men were those Many died after the war ended in 1944. We presume that they died of their wounds and chose to be buried with their mates.

A particular memorial really caught my heart. It is one of the homemade crosses and poppies that the British bring over with them. One the poppy it is handwritten "In memory of German sons, from English parents". There is no bitterness here, only sorrow that spans international boundaries.

The history of Mont St Michel dates back to the 6 and 7th centuries. Mont St Michel sits on a rocky island about a kilometre off the coast surrounded by tidal flats. In 8th century a church/abbey was built atop the island. It became a monastary and place of pilgrimage during the Reformation, but during the French Revolution its influenced waned and it became a prison for political prisoners. The outer walls of the island form a defence that succesful repelled the English during their year long seige in 1423-24 during the 100 year war.

The boys with a 15th century English cannon that was abandoned after the seige during the 100 year war.

Nancy enjoying her french bread and camembert lunch on the ramparts.

Mom and Dad went their own way, so the four of us roamed the battlements imagining we were surround by the English fleet and then toured the ancient abbey and monastery. Spectacular. Walking where men walked and worshipped over a thousand years. You could almost see them in their hooded robes circling the cloister deep in prayer, or eating at the rough tables while the scriptures were read from the pulpit. The abbey is an amazing piece architecture that I could go on and on about. Imagine, all from stone and all before cranes and AutoCAD.

Gideon needs to hold the crypt up!

Oh yes, the crowds. This is the most visitted site in France with over 1 million visitors per year (and it seemed like they were all there the same day we were!) We counted 50 tour buses and in the narrow streets it was quite crushing.

As we made the long walk back to our car, Gideon really wanted to walked on the beach so he and Nancy took off their shoes and walked barefoot through the tidal mud.

Walking in the footsteps of pilgrims through the centuries

Our ice cream stop after a lot of walking at the Mont.

The view of the Mont from our ice cream pitstop

We stopped for ice cream on the way home. There was a bouncy castle for the kids to use and at first Jonas and Gideon bounced but then Jonas decided to step it up a notch and do some front flips. All went well until he did a face plant and got a bloody nose!

At our B&B at St. Pience, dropped off our bags and then joined Johan and Anna Mieke for some more feeding of the rabbits and chickens and another lovely evening. While I did some blogging, the rest of the fam introduced Johan and Anna Mieke to the joys of Skip Bo and even left Anna Mieke the set of cards so that she could play with her own grandkids on her upcoming visit to St. Martin in the Dutch Antilles.

Blessings and love, Scott