Exchange in France 09-10

Dear mother nature, I'm tired of rain, please send me some sun.

It rains almost every day here now. Leaving your room without your umbrella is like asking to get drenched. It can change from sunny with clouds to pouring rain in a matter of minutes. Almost every day is sort of hazy and gray, but it is mild not super cold or anything. Sometimes when the wind comes up it can get nippy. And when the wind drives the rain sideways it makes umbrellas pretty much useless. I am told that all winter will be sort of like this but a little colder. Just lots of rainy, windy, gray days. I feel like Eeyore looking at the sky and saying: "looks like it's gonna rain."

The dirt path that we take to school to avoid going on the tram and to enjoy walking through the park has long since turned into a mud trail, but we walk along the grass edges and try to avoid the mud as much as possible.

I think by the end of winter I am going to really be missing the snow.

Twice today it has poured rain and in between been nice enough. The rain is nice to listen to and watch from the window, but I don't look forward to having to walk through it.

Here there is a week of holidays from school for All Saint's day, Halloween isn't celebrated nearly as much as it is in Canada, but I must say I'd choose having a week off school over going out trick-or-treating anytime.

On Saturday, October 31, Krysteena (one of the other students here from Waterloo) and I went with two guys that we met from our residence, Nicolas and Johan, to go and see Mont St Michel.





From left to right: Johan, me, Krysteena and Nicolas on top of Mont Saint Michel.








We took sort of a long way around to get there so that we could visit Guérande, a fortified city that still has the old ramparts standing; La Forêt de Paimpont, where we saw Merlin's tomb and the Fountain of Youth; and then finally Mont St Michel.

Mont Saint Michel is a sort of self-contained town that is best described by a picture so here are a few:

Driving across the bridge to Mont Saint Michel (Mount St. Michael). It is a village that is in itself an island. Before the bridge was built it was accessible only during low tide by bringing horses and carts across the sand. Of course, with this visitors faced getting stuck in the wet sand and usually stayed overnight to wait for the tide to go out again.






Looking back to shore from on top of Mont St Michel. You can't see it well in this picture but they are sort of dam partway down this stream. Because of all the sediment that is washed in with the tide over time, the shore is building its way out to the city and it will soon not be an island at all. So they are building a dam to lock the tide in and let in out slowly over a longer period of time so that it won'ot wash the land out which cause the shore to grow. In this picture the tide is just starting to come in.



A closer view.















At the peek of the village is a church, and at the top of its spire a statue of St Michael the Archangel. The spire itself is 32m high, which doesn't include the height of the statue.
















A replica of the statue of St Michael the Archangel.



















Walking through the village we found a door that was built exactly for Krysteena and I ...













Inside the church:




























In the garden:













So there's my latest adventure in terms of visiting another city.

Oh and one last picture:
Just in case anyone was doubting my angelic nature....


:)









Lots more to come soon.

God bless,