Mont St. Michel

Dear Family and Friends,

Our next port of call was Cherbourg, France. Chuck and I booked an excursion through the ship to go to Mont St. Michel.  It was an all day excursion, but five and a half hours of that was spent on the bus to get to our destination.  It was worth it though.  We have been to many places in France but we had not seen Mont St. Michel before.  Here it is as we approached.  I snapped the picture, it has the corn field in the foreground.

At the base of the abbey, there is a small medieval town.  Narrow streets, shops, hotels and restaurants today.

 Some pictures of the houses.

 and rooftops.....

Since we did not have much time there, I gave Chuck the camera to go and explore the abbey on top. 
 He is taking over the post from here on.

 This is what a tired horde of sight seers look like after climbing about half of the 500+ steps just to get into the monastery.  Nancy wisely handed off her camera and did not climb the endless stairs.

 And here is an example of the beautiful architecture we saw in numerous rooms.

 But, since I was alone with the camera,  focused on  guy's stuff.  Here is a great old bombard. n early version of a cannon.

 It was abandoned by an English adventurer in 1432, sixty years before Columbus discovered America.

When I approached the mount, I saw a vertical construction, which looked like part of a temporary restoration project. 

When I eventually got to a viewpoint above it, it still looked like part of the restoration.

Only, what it that sled like object with the chain on it?

The sled was connected to a chain which was connected to a rope which was wound up on a huge wheel by humans walking inside the wheel. It looked as if the monks designed a method of raising supplies.

 

 

 However, I learned that when the monastery was used as a prison in the 1800's, the wheel was rebuilt and new wheeled sleds were constructed. Prisoners provided the man power to raise supplies. I am sure I saw this wheel, or another prison wheel, in an old version of Les Misrerables. It made me tired just thinking about it.

Chuck

I have the camera back and I shot this photo as we left the abby behind.

 
Here is Chuck on the bus on the way back to the ship.  Climbing to the top is hard work.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck