Well we have all been fighting off bad colds for the last few days, so I am behind in my posts.

On Friday we headed out to see Mt St Michel, which is around 50km from St Malo. Callum visited here when he was previously in France, and once again it proved to be helpful as he helped out with the kids so that I could get a more in-depth look. Mt St Michel is probably best described as a fortified abbey, its first structures were built in the tenth century, and continually added to, which makes it the great sight it is today. The kids were excited to get the children’s English audio guide to carry around, which explained each area that we visited. Maya in particular really enjoyed the guide and explaining it to Callum and I. There is a labyrinth of secret tunnels inside Mt St Michel, and Jarrah believes that he found the hidden entrance. We went right up to the top of the abbey, and I was reminded that I am very frightened of heights, that said the view across the bay of Mt St Michel towards Cancale was worth it. The kids coped really well with all the stairs (I don’t even like to think how many there were), and it was a really wonderful day.

We found out exactly how many tourists visit St Malo on a Saturday, and it is not something anyone in the family is keen to experience again. We had a lazy morning and Callum took the kids for a swim in the indoor pool at our hotel. It’s heated nicely and has a great view of the ocean, but is totally over chlorinated. The kids were relieved to finally have a swim (after a little nagging). We have been fighting off cold the whole time we have been in France, and I was not feeling well so I decided not to swim. The highlight of the swim would have been a seven year old French girl who was there unsupervised with her 11 year old sister. It started out well when she climbed out of the pool to go to the toilet, the problem was when she decided to piss right on the concrete on the side of the pool. Callum and the kids left pretty much straight away and Maya and Jarrah were almost hysterical with laughter when they told me.

We thought it would be nice to venture into St Malo, which was a big mistake. Everything we loved about the town was changed by the influx of French tourists, who were rude and would happily push past you, stop in front of you for no reason and not move (in cars & on foot), or just run into you. We grabbed the kids some crepes and made a quick trip too the lollie shop and half a kilo of lollies later (thanks to Callum) we made a quick escape. On the upside we had a beautiful apartment to return to and we came home and all snuggled up together to watch the Winter Olympics and DVD’s.

Yesterday (Sunday) I woke up at 6am feeling terrible. You know that feeling when you know that you have a infection and you have a temperature? I had a hot bath and felt a little better. As we had a quiet day the day before I did not want to stay home and sleep, so we left late morning to go to Cancale which is around the next big bay uo from St Malo. It is famous for it's abundance of fresh seafood. We were once again overwhelmed by way too many tourists, so we decided to drive up the coast road towards Mt St Michel and see what we could find. There were lots of great tiny towns, but most shops were closed as it was Sunday. I had seen the bay when we visited Mt St Michel, but on the ground I could not believe how huge it is. By then we both wanted a coffee, and headed from Ponterson towards the next big town called Avraches, which turned out to be a great choice.

When we first arrived it looked like the whole town was closed. We persevered and were delighted to find that the bar was open and went inside to grab a delicious coffee. I don’t think I have had a bad coffee the whole time I have been here! We went across the road to grab a baguette and saw what looked like the remains of a old castle. I was still feeling sick so I stayed in the car with Maya (who was very tired), while Callum and the little adventurer Jarrah checked it out. I am so happy that they did as they came back to tell is that in addition to the castle they also discovered a museum that is dedicated to Mt St Michel and St Michael the Archangel. The museum holds around 200 manuscripts dating back to the 10th century. Once again we got a English audio guide for the kids, they also got a booklet to fill out which was really educational and will go into their book that they are putting together for school. There were questions to answer for each room in the museum which were actually quite challenging, but they managed to get through all but one question.

As a family of geeks we were all super excited to find a comic book exhibition mainly concerned with editions featuring Mt St Michel, or St Michael the Archangel. There were editions of Spiderman, X-Men, Superman, Captain America, Mighty Mouse, Batman,Fantastic Four plus manga and French comics we had not seen before. There were some really beautiful storyboards and individual paintings. Jarrah loved the action figures and a comic about a fish that was doctor. Maya’s favourite was the Mighty Mouse comic (which was also my favourite). We grabbed some souvenirs and headed back to St Malo. We were really happy with our day firstly as Saturday was a disappointment and secondly as we had found the museum by fluke. We decided to be a little less structured and found where one of the American war cemeteries was, but it was almost 5pm and our camera had run out of battery we decided to come back on Monday with more time to explore WW2 sites.

What still amazes me about France is that some things are exorbitantly priced (read Disney, Tolls, RER and cafes) yet museums and historical sites such as Mt St Michel (less than 40 euro) and the Louvre (less than 20 euro) are so cheap. Kids are free or really cheap (2.50 euro) at all major sites we have visited.

Take care,
Sos, Cal, Moo and Jay