A Night on the Mont

Last night we stayed overnight on Mont Saint Michel.  We had been reading about how crowded the Mont is during the day, and how quiet and peaceful it is overnight.  Seemed that the best way to see Mont Saint Michel was to arrive at the end of the day, stay overnight and leave the next morning when the tour buses began arriving.

With this plan we set off from Saint Malo in the afternoon and arrived at Mont Saint Michel around 4.30pm.  There's a special overnight car park on a causeway at the foot of the rock.  The regular day time car parking areas completely flood when the Normandy tide comes rushing in.  So with Cecile safely parked on higher ground, we entered Mont Saint Michel against the tide of visitors leaving for the day.  We had no trouble finding the Auberge we had booked  as there is really just one street on Mont Saint Michel - Grande Rue.  It curls it's way up, up, up and around one side of the island, and is lined with 15th and 16th century shops, cafes, restaurants and galleries.

It really is the only way to see the Mont; by 7pm the Grande Rue was all but deserted.  From the walls we watched the tide race in "like galloping horses",  and from a romantic French restaurant overlooking the ramparts and the Bay we saw the sun go down and the sky turn pink.

With the day tourists departed you seemingly have Mont Saint Michel to yourselves for the evening and early morning.  After dinner it was enchanting to walk all over the Mont, up the crooked stairs and around the winding alleyways. There are little gardens and  old cemeteries, carved stone and ironwork.  To see all of this and the beautifully lit Abbey in the moonlight was unforgettable!  

We woke early to the Abbey bells and went out to walk around this beautiful masterpiece again.  We were waiting at the great Abbey doors when they opened at 9am.  The Abbey is a marvel of rooms, and again to see it with just a few other early birds was wonderful.  It is no wonder that the French adore this place, it holds great national significance for them as over the centuries of its existence it was never taken by the English.

When we had finished at the Abbey we packed up our room on the Mont and walked back down Grande Rue against the incoming tide.....of tourists!

It was time to leave France and make our way.....home.

Even approaching Mont Saint Michel is spectacular

From the ramparts - watching the tide rush in

The tide just about to cut off access and make
Mont Saint Michel an island again

Watching the chefs prepare the famous La Mere Poulard
Normandy omelet.  It's nice of them to have the kitchen on
view so people can pop in a have a (free) look at the preparation
and open-fire cooking of these 30 euro omeletes!

A lovely birthday dinner here

Magnificent by day...

... enchanting by night

the Abbey

the Abbey cloisters

it's simply magnificent!

En France

Indeed, September was fast approaching and it was time to leave Croatia.  E to head back to work in the UK, and senor and I to continue our travels.  We farewelled E at Split airport on a morning in the last week of August when the temperature was already in the high 30s, and we headed north over the border to Slovenia, then into Austria, and finally a third border crossing for the day into Germany where we stayed overnight at a charming Bavarian gasthof in Flintsbach.

Next day, on to Baden-Baden at the edge of the Black Forest to visit the grand (but affordable) 130 year old Friedrichsbad Roman Spa.  We felt that we were getting experienced with the European spa routine, but Friedrichsbad added a new dimension - mixed bathing...totally naked.  The entry fee allows you up to four hours to enjoy the 17 stages at the spa complex.  The routine goes something like this:  shower, warm room, hot room, shower, scrubbing, shower, steam room, hot steam room, swim, bubble pool, floating pool, shower, cold plunge pool, massage, moisturising, cocoon, relaxing.  Simply wonderful .  All 17 stages are numbered, and there are signs on the walls to remind you where you are up to and where to head next;  all you do is simply follow the numbers through the different rooms!  Males and females have separate, but identical areas on either side of the complex, and it's at the swim and bubble stages, under the great dome in the centre of the building, that naked males and females bath together.  Probably the strangest of the 17 stages was the 'cocoon', where you are taken to a large round room circled with beds.  You lie on a bed and your spa attendant wraps you, cocoon-like, in a crisp, white sheet; and there you have a half hour nap before being gently woken and taken to the relaxing room - a beautiful, grand old conservatory-style room where you relax on sun lounges sipping tea and reading the latest (German!) magazines.  It makes perfect sense though; after a massage I often feel that a little sleep would be ideal - well at Friedrichsbad that's exactly what happens....massage, then a little sleep!  Senor and I loved it!

Next day we continued west, skirted around Paris and arrived at Giverny to visit Claude Monet's beautiful home and garden.  We spent the next few days exploring Normandy and Brittany.

Visiting Claude

Claude's studio room was magnifique

Beautiful colours throughout Claude's house

I want my dining room the colour of Claude's!

Oh, Claude!

We didn't want to leave

Normandy beaches, hundreds of kite surfers.
We visited the D Day landing beaches of Sword, Juno, Omaha and Gold

Normandy fields,  hundreds of hay bales

We stayed here in Saint Malo.  Francois Chateaubriand, for
whom the steak dish was named, was born in Saint Malo.

A grand old French hotel, full of character and charm

Tide's out in Saint Malo....

...boules are in...

and steaming hot 'moules' are Saint Malo's best meal!

A birthday swim at this beach a couple of hours
after this photo was taken and the tide had come in
right up to the tide line at the left. Huge tides.

Beware the Britanny tides!

A French birthday. Merci x

Night swimming

While growing up in Australia one rule learned and indelibly etched in my mind was 'no night time beach swimming'.  We learned that sharks like to feed in low light, so evening and night swimming in the sea has always been simply a no-no.

Here at our 'home' for this week by the Adriatic sea Ivo, whose family has lived along the Dalmatian coast for six centuries, regularly swims at night.  As we travelled along the coast we could see for ourselves people taking a dip at night - along the beaches and from the rocky platforms in front of their homes.

So after a day of 40 degrees and another spectacular Dalmatian sunset, senor, E and I walked the short path to the sea and stood on the rocks, gingerly looking out ...... into the inky blue darkness!  Above us it was a moonless night, but the stars were fairly blazing.

We all dived in.  Bliss.  The refreshing Adriatic sea washed off the day's heat, and as we floated face up we spied shooting stars and satellites.  We were enveloped by deep blue - above us, below us, around us.

It was sublimely relaxing.  All along the coast were the twinkling lights of homes and konobas - Dalmatian taverns.

Eventually we climbed out of the water and lay on the rocks - still warm as they released the heat of the day.

It's magic when something ordinary becomes something extraordinary and night swimming in the Adriatic felt magic indeed.

"Nightswimming, remembering that night

September's coming soon...."  thanks REM.

Dalmatian beauty

The jewel in Croatia's crown must be the Dalmatian coast and the day we drove this stretch of coastline was also E's 19th birthday. The drive along the coast is stunning. Spectacular and jaw-droppingly so.  The road hugs the coast and the constant view is of mountains plunging into the Adriatic - a cerulean sea dotted with islands. 

The route we took after the Vis ferry boat delivered us back to Split was south to Baska Voda then to Ploce. Another ferry boat took us from Ploce to Trpanj on the Peljesac peninsula.  From Trpanj we drove up the peninsula to our destination for one week, Dingac.  The small village of Dingac produces Croatia's finest wines, indeed the entire Peljesac peninsula is an area adorned with vineyards.

In Dingac we stayed a week with Ana, Ivo and their extended family.  Their villa is two large homes just meters from the sea. Behind their homes are their vines, almost as far as the eye can see up the hills!  Ana cooked for us the night we arrived which was a delightful celebration dinner in E's honor.  Fish caught that morning by her son Bozo and cooked on the outdoor grill, vegetables from her garden, and ccompanied by wines made from their own grapes.  Ana's delicious dessert, traditional creme cake, became the perfect birthday cake for us to serenade E with 'Sretan Rodendan'.

 E's 19th birthday was a day to remember.

Dalmatian Beauty
Sretan Rodendan, E x

As well as the coastline, Dalmatian sunsets are spectacular.  Every evening the sky was ablaze with colour as the sun melted into the watery horizon.

We passed the week swimming, reading and exploring the peninsula.  We took day trips - to the neighbouring island of Korcula, and another to beautiful Dubrovnik. It was hot when we arrived at Dingac and over the week it got hotter - a number of days reached over 40 degrees.  No matter, the sea was only steps away and even during day trips a swim in the harbour or off the rocks was cool and refreshing.  Most nights a sea breeze would cool us down, though there were some nights when the breeze seemed hotter than the day and it felt like someone had left the heater on in summer!  One night on the terrace, Ivo and Ana invited some of their musician friends over and they entertained us with their beautiful voices singing Klapa - traditional Croatian a capalla - songs.

This is typical scenery on the Peljesac peninsula. Vines
and vineyards everywhere.  We stayed in Dingac which is on the coast,
and to get there it is necessary to get to the other side of  those hills.
In the 1950s the 400m single lane Tunel Dingac was cut right through the hills.

One lane, 400m through the mountain.  At the end you
must immediately turn left or right...

....for straight ahead is a precipitous drop into the Adriatic!
Spectacular.

This is Ana and Ivo's place

....these are their grapes and the winding, single lane road back
up to Tunel Dingac.

All around their villa are shady, vine-covered
terraces and verandas.

Dalmatian coast from the Franciscan Samostan (monastery)
of Our Lady, built on a cliff overlooking the town of Orebic.

Dubrovnik harbour, the city walls and St John's Fortress.

We stopped for lunch in a shady spot - Konoba Amoret -
between the steps of Dubrovnik Cathedral and the city gate.

It was very hot in Dubrovnik, and so we abandoned our
sight seeing and instead spent the afternoon swimming
in the harbour in the shadow of the ancient city walls.

It was a perfect way to spend the hot afternoon, and a
highlight of our visit to this magnificent city.

As the sun went down we walked the city walls, which entirely
circle the city.   Glorious views over Dubrovnik's red roofs.  From
high on the walls it is easy to see how much of the city was destroyed in
the early 1990s during the Croatian War of Independence
as the bright red roofs are the new ones.

Stradun, Dubrovnik's main street.
The grand, ancient stone pavement is worn so
smooth that it shines

Onofrio's fountain - built in the 1400s as part of the city's water supply.
Today you can wash your hands or splash your face
or drink from the lovely cool water running from
its water jets.

Another day we visited the island of Korcula.  This is the
 Korcula town wall - mini-Dubrovnik in many ways, and
claimed to be the birthplace of Marco Polo.

The top of the town walls are lined with lovely, shady
cafes and restaurants

Korcula street

A refreshing swim under the Korcula walls. The
Peljesac peninsula is in the background

This is the swimming spot at Ana and Ivo's villa.
Every day their dog Sokol would swim in the sea with us.

Trpanj, where we would sit beside the harbour
in an outdoor cafe with wifi 

Every day Bozo would 'go to the sea' to fish.
This is Ana showing us what she calls "number one fish"!