Day 12- Le Mont St Michel and St Malo

A lazy start again but Jon walked up to town and bought a fresh baguette hot from the oven for our breakfast, nothing like it and needs time to enjoy.  We took Smartie and drove to the car park where we could catch a free shuttle across to Le Mont, avoiding the quaint but very smelly (and costly) horse drawn bus! Having taken obligatory photos of Le Mont we walked through into the building and had yet another ‘wow’ moment. We had expected to find stone steps taking us up and around the ramparts of the building but instead we walked into a sort of Dickensian cobbled street with shops and restaurants of all description crowding the hill upwards as we walked. It was a village within the walls and quite hidden from view of the outside world. Both of us have been amazed at how little we have to pay to look round buildings/exhibitions etc and this was still only 5 Euro’s each which allowed us to then go all through the old monastery, which was huge and dates back to 709! The views out over the riverbed were magic and I wished we could have stayed to watch the tide come in but we had to move on. Getting late so we whizzed along the motorway and into St Malo where we sat for a very frustrating 20 mins waiting to get a parking space. However, once parked we discovered  a fascinating place, lots of contrasts with the old battlements surrounding the town and very trendy shops underneath. A lively port area where the local artists are painting and selling their work, street musicians and performers keep the crowd entertained and the open air bars and cafes are a melting pot of all nationalities. Jon in his element as this was the first bar to sell Stella!! Enjoyed the people watching before we drove back to camp, where even more campers had been squeezed in all around us. Not sure we can actually get out tomorrow! Perhaps we will have to stay, haha!