Kirsten and I spent a day in St. Malo, a French port town where we caught our ferry to Guernsey. It's a beautiful town.
First we took care of some business and found a laundromat. Kirsten did some amazing, in-laundromat, quick changing so she could wash the pants she was wearing. Afterwards we found a hotel that would take our bags and store them for us, even though France has a security policy that prohibits baggage storage. The girl working at the hotel was British. She may not have been familiar with the policy.
St. Malo has a section of town surrounded by the old city walls. We found a bakery and bought baguettes to eat on top of the walls.
From the walls, there are views out to small surrounding islands and fortresses. The little islandy-formation in the background behind Kirsten was closed to the public because a film crew was working there.
This is a fortress off the coast of St. Malo.
We hiked down to the beach and investigated the fortress. This is the view facing away from the fortress.
This is a street sign in St. Malo. I would love to know how it was named. I hope there was really a dancing cat involved.
Oh, and we ate these yummy pastries in St. Malo too.
France does not believe in baggage storage.
Guernsey does.
This is Cornet Castle, an ancient fortress in the harbor. It was used for defensive purposes from the 13th century to 1947.
This is a tower that was built to commemorate a royal visit to the island.
St. Peter Port
The Little Chapel is a miniature replica of Lourdes Basilica, created from broken china and seashells. It's big enough to walk through comfortably (barely), and the detail is amazing.
Sucevita Monastery Exterior
Nuns at Sucevita Trading Candy
Monastery Detail
I love the representation of cherubim (the red, winged figure in the middle) in this painting style. We also saw them in Meteora.
I think this graffiti is really fascinating, because some of it's dated 1890. People have always been jerks.
This tree is at Sucevita and it was covered in bees. I think it suits the monastery. It looks very Biblical to me.
Legend says that Michael the Archangel instructed St. Aubert to build a church on the island where Mont St. Michel Abbey is now located. Hence the name and hence the statue.
St. Michel
This is a small part of the Grand Hall. At one time it was painted and decorated quite elaborately for guests to the abbey. The fireplaces are huge. They're fun to stand in.
This is a monk wheel, like a gerbil wheel. It's a human-powered way to pull a sledge up and down from the abbey.
This is a view from the monk wheel room out to the flats around the island.
I always love cloisters.
This is the B&B about 20 minutes from Mont St. Michel where Kirsten and I stayed. The owners were British and the community is a little English stronghold. We ate at an English pub the night we stayed there.
This is the view of Vernazza from the hiking trail. See the reddish building behind all the umbrellas on the square? That's where we stayed. And see that pretty sea down there? That's where we rewarded ourselves for our hours of hiking (and where I cut up my foot on rocks).
This is the delicious strawberry and chocolate panna cotta we ate at my favorite Italian restaurant, Il Pirata. We ate breakfast there the morning we were planning to leave, but then we postponed our departure to Milan so we could eat lunch there as well.
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