Day #: 17-23

Date(s): 13MAY – 18MAY2025

Location(s) Visited: Granville, Mont Saint-Michel (Normandy), St. Malo (Brittany) and Cap Frehel

Overall Impression of Location(s): Granville = 3, Mont Saint-Michel = 2, St. Malo = 2.5 and Cape Frehel = 3

4 -added to our favorite list and we would return again
3 – a great place to visit
2 – OK for one visit, but we would not return again
1 – we wish we hadn’t wasted our time here  

Distance Driven on Leg/Trip (km): 226

Weather/Temperature (°F): We are what we have been calling HOT / COLD. In the sun, the temperatures are almost too warm but as soon as the wind picks up or there is cloud cover then we are cold. We are in a constant hot-cold cycle with shedding layers and adding layers. Overall, the weather has remained amazing with daytime temperatures in 60s and overnight temperatures in the high 40s. The sun does not set until ~ 9:45 PM each night so we have very long days which means we are back to wearing our Alaska eye shades when we go to bed.

Road Conditions: No issues with the roads, but mainly secondary (skinny) roads as we have been trying to take the scenic routes. We received our 1^st Fulli toll bill for the first 2 weeks of our travel for the buttery, smooth tollways in France and it cost 40 €. Totally worth it!

Chickpea Mechanical Status: A new sewer smell from our cassette toilet has re-emerged. No, it is not the new SOG we just had installed and it is working great. The issue is with the vent button on the actual cassette that has fallen off somewhere unbeknownst to the Sanitation Engineer (i.e. Tony) leaving a large, unsealed opening for sewer gases to leak out. A new button has been ordered, but for now it is duct tape to the rescue.

Highlights:

• Granville was a surprisingly enjoyable midday stopping point to stretch our legs. This small port city a “locals feel” and we did a long walk throughout the city including along the ramparts. This city is the boyhood home of Christian Dior and although the museum was closed on the day we visited, we were able to tour his fabulous gardens. We were most intrigued on our walk near the marina by all of the boats resting on the mud flats due to the tides in the Bay of Mont St. Michele which vary by up to 13 m.
• Mont St. Michele was an interesting stop but very crowded being the 2^nd most visited tourist attraction in France. We arrived at the bottom steps at 8 AM to start the climb up 600 stairs to the abbey as we had pre-purchased tickets for the 9 AM entry into the abbey. There was a crowd of ~150 people waiting to get in at 9 AM so our experience in Mont St. Michele was enjoyable since the abbey is so large. We listened to a VoiceMap audio tour that explained each room providing history and context. Tony’s favorite part was the cavernous opening where they threw the dead monks as there was only enough room in the graveyard for the abbots, so the monks were just disposed of in this manner. Tony keeps saying he saw “monk bones” when he looked down the dark opening and it still causes instant laughter between us. After the abbey tour, we walked around the “town” a bit longer but the crowds were building so we knew it was time to exit. How this small of a place can accommodate so many tourists is mind-boggling. We enjoyed our visit but we would not return again due to the size of the crowds. Pro tip: Go early or late, but not between 10 AM – 3 PM. We rode our bikes back at 5 PM and Mont St. Michele was once again deserted.
• St. Malo was a nice introduction into Brittany. This area of Brittany is more rural and less populated than Normandy. In Brittany, they speak Breton, a Celtic language, so all of the signs are in Breton and French. There are also no tollways in Breton which we appreciated. The area reminds us of Nova Scotia and it is known for cider and creperies. We took another VoiceMap audio tour of the Old Town called Intra-Muros.
• Our visit to Cap Frehal was planned for doing a coastal hike. On our walk, we passed a working lighthouse and walked on steep cliffs with no fences or guardrails. As with most places, after about 1 mile on the trail, the crowds thin considerably. Now that we have learned about Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, we see the remnants of the bunkers everywhere and Cap Frehal was no different. After settling in for the night at a no-frills campsite, Tony was able to get in one of the best bike rides he has ever taken from our campsite with well-maintained roads, few cars and rolling hills.

Lowlights:

• The crowds of Mont Saint-Michel spoiled our opinion of this place. While it is indeed beautiful, there are just TOO MANY PEOPLE. The population of the town is 23(!) people, but 3 MILLION tourists visit each year. We are glad we went once, but we would not return.
• We took a hike from our campsite in St. Malo but is it ended up not being our favorite. We had to walk on busy roads from our campsite to get to the trailhead and then once on the trailhead it was buggy, hot and massively overgrown. We slugged through to the end, but there was a bit of griping along the way by the both of us.
• Tony had a navigational challenge in Granville which had Tracey driving through the historic Old Town twice on streets we should not have been taking our campervan on. If we had both just taken a deep breath, we would have seen the large parking lot that would have solved all of our problems and saved us a stressful hour of driving.
• Tracey forgot to put an SD card in her camera and took photos for 30 minutes inside Mont St-Michel before realizing this. We had very few interior photos due to this.
• We do laundry at shopping center laundry machines called Revolution Laundry. It is very efficient and we have developed a system between us. Somehow, laundry was left behind the last time we stopped and missing is a “perfect” dish drying mat and possibly other items we have yet to miss.

Up Next: Ploumanac’h and Roscoff

Onwards! Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer! Allez on y va!