Chateau de Chambord, France

After Saint Malo, we drove to our accommodation at Cangey in the Loire Valley. Loire Valley is the place to see all the chateau or French castles. There are over 300! The French sibeh rich hor.

The next morning we woke up early hoping we could catch the sunrise. And we did!

Saint Malo, France

Saint Malo is about an hour's drive away from Mont Saint-Michel. We picked this place because I really wanted to visit Bretagne (or Brittany), and the closest city in Bretagne to Mont Saint-Michel happens to be this.

The ferry port was right outside the city and upon arriving, you'll see the magnificent grey walls surrounding the city. Inside the city is vastly grey as well. The roads/streets are paved with cobble stones, the buildings mainly made of some kind of grey stones too. Its a pretty amazing change of landscape. 

It's not easy to get a parking within the city itself so we had to park outside. 

View from our hotel window.

Mont Saint-Michel, France

That morning, as I have mentioned at the end of my last post, I woke up not feeling the best. I suspect it's the cheese we had during lunch at Honfleur. Plus the wind was so noisy the entire night I didn't sleep well. The wind continued through to the morning and it started to shower. Thank goodness we asked for breakfast to be served in our room because the lobby is quite a bit of walk from our room. 

This is my fake 'blissful' face. Actually inside I was feeling like shit lol.

View from our room's balcony

The disappointing thing during our stay at Mont Saint-Michel is there was no tide, and the fact that we have specifically booked a room with bay view (paying extra of course) and seeing no sea water but a grey, muddy land. There were also a few bulldozers doing what looked like maintenance and repair. Nothing wrong with that but it's just not the view we were expecting? Plus the weather was gloomy, cold and wet. I can't think of a worse time to visit, really. Also partly because I wasn't feeling well which spoils the whole experience. The only consolation was it was not crowded with people. Apparently during hot season this place can be elbow to elbow o.O

Disappointments aside, it is a beautiful island. Exploring the village made me feel like I was in Diablo (video game) or something hahaha. 

For anyone interested in visiting Mont Saint-Michel, do check the tide timetable - we made the mistake of booking the hotel impulsively because it was at a discounted price but did not realise it's only discounted because there's no tide! There's nothing to buy or eat here except maybe the omelette. 

Our hotel room is situated a little away from the town center so it's secluded and quiet. Although a little overpriced for such a small room and tiny bed (And deceiving! Should have told us there's no tide), the location is great, the room in general is clean and warm, and the balcony's beautiful. I can almost imagine how beautiful it'll be if we could sit there and watch the sun rise/set, or the sea water rise and fall. Alas, it was too gloomy for any sun, and the tides just wasn't happening :( oh well. 

Auberge Saint Pierre 

Grande Rue

50170 Le Mont Saint Michel

+33 2 33601403

contact@auberge-saint-pierre.fr

After checking out from our hotel, we went up to the abbey - the one building that everyone recognizes as Mont Saint-Michel.

Do they cook human in this fireplace?! So big!

Sorry ah I don't really have much to comment about the abbey except for it's huge wtf. Clearly being an architect's wife does not mean anything lol. He did go through bits and pieces about the architecture of the abbey with me but all I remember is there's sibeh a lot of stairs to climb and it's freezing inside the building itself. While touring the abbey you get sort of a panoramic view of what surrounds the island - which was supposed to be blue sea but unfortunately it was mud for us wtf but nvm la quite nice too.

For lunch, I wasn't in the mood to do any research as I was still feeling quite shitty and wasn't even hungry. We randomly looked at restaurants and decided on La Confiance. I just had a look at the reviews right now on Tripadvisor, wow, didn't know it's so infamous lol.

Vin chaud, or hot wine, perfect for freezing weather or for people who enjoy sweetened cheap wine wtf.

Omelette a Le Mont Saint Michel - this omelette is in EVERY restaurant in Mont Saint Michel

Moules Mariniere et frites, Mariner/Sailor Mussels and fries.

Some lamb and chips (forgot what this was called)

Traditional apple tart with salted caramel sauce

So Wk had the wine, and a 3 course set meal of the omelette, lamb and dessert. I only had the mussels which was supposed to be an entree can you believe? How on earth can anyone eat so much?! Maybe it's meant for sharing, I don't know. But then I don't think sharing is a culture in France, people seem to only order for themselves, and it's almost impossible to see any diners not have a type of wine on their table. 

I actually like the food, it's nothing fancy but they were tasty. The omelette is a specialty of Mont Saint-Michel. It's got your normal omelette sitting on top of some eggy froth, kind of like under-cooked souffle. They're both light and fluffy but with contrasting texture, do I make sense? The combination is quite delicious. 

I do have to agree with some of the reviewers that service wise, it's not the best. Not that we had a bad service, but it looked like they're a constantly busy type of restaurant so the service can be a bit fast-paced, impatient, snappy and not so friendly. 

I won't bother with recommending this place not because it wasn't great or anything, it wasn't anything special.

We picked this restaurant because it's got an English menu, and it's one of the restaurants (there were many, btw) which did not charge exorbitantly for the Mont's signature omelette, unlike La Mere Poulard Restaurant - the origin of  this special omelette. 

Seriously, I am NOT paying an arm and a leg for freaking omelettes. 

And that was the end of Mont Saint-Michel. After lunch we drove to our next stop - Saint Malo in Bretagne! 

Honfleur, France

So here goes our honeymoon snippets!

Upon landing in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, we picked up our rental car and started driving towards our first accommodation. It wasn't an easy drive for the both of us firstly because Wk had to drive on the left side and keep to the right side of the road for the first time. And then there was the rain. Plus after all that flying (total of 19-20 hours of travelling+transit) we were both exhausted. 

The thing I hate about roads in France in the cities or towns is there aren't many cross junctions with traffic lights, instead, they have roundabouts. LOTS of roundabouts. I usually only get motion sickness on winding roads, but the amount of roundabouts in France was enough to give me a really bad motion sickness. So bad.

However, the moment we stepped into our hotel room all that suffering disappeared. Stepping into our room felt like the biggest reward we have received in our lives after a really long, painful struggle. I know I sound dramatic and like I'm exaggerating but I'm not.

Our room Chambre Or, was divine! It was warm, clean, spacious, comfortable for 2, well facilitated and very tastefully decorated.

It is an 18th century property which Aline, our lovely host, bought and renovated. Aline herself used to be a film director, who enjoys a bit of interior designing. 

 

Pictures below is the living area on ground floor where guests are served organic, continental breakfast. Eggs can also be requested, she will cook it to your liking.

The stairs to get to our room was the most narrow and steep stairs I've ever climbed! 

A picture before we said our goodbyes.

Aline insisted I must stand slightly aside so that the camera can see the fireplace behind us XD

Maison de Honfleur

06 78745993

21 rue Saint-Leonard, 14600 Honfleur

maisondehonfleur@orange.fr

Read my review here on Tripadvisor (to be linked when it's approved)

After checking out from the hotel we explored the town a little before moving on to our next destination.

Our companion for the entire France trip

Apparently most Europeans, or maybe just the French, drive manual cars. The only auto the company had was this Citroen C4, which unfortunately wasn't a very good car for us; very slow pick up - a pain in traffic lights and parking and can be very 'jerky'. The size also isn't ideal when entering historical towns with narrow streets - absolute nightmare! Other than that, it's spacious inside and comfortable enough when the car isn't jerky.

Back to Honfleur. We walked along the port which has a beautiful view, went into a few churches, got lost in the stone-paved laneways and admired some of the timber walled houses. 

Honfleur is a small maritime town situated in Normandie, a region in France known for its dairy products eg. milk, cream, and cheese. Especially the soft cheeses such as Brie and Camembert. There's actually a place in Normandie called Camembert! Assuming it's where Camembert cheese originated. We didn't get to go there because it was a bit off from our travel plans.

 

 

Most of the churches were built based on naval construction, out of chestnut wood which according to Aline, is a natural spider repellent. Whatever that is, we NEED it. Our house is full of spiders! Anyway, if you look at the ceiling in the picture above, it's looks like an upside down ship's hull.

 

For lunch Aline recommended and kindly helped us make a reservation at this restaurant which serves traditional Norman cuisine - exactly what we were after since we were in Normandie!

Complimentary peanuts and marinated olives for appetizers

Foie gras terrine

Some kind of shellfish baked with garlic butter

Scallops (or St. Jacques in french) with lemon butter

Grilled beef with potato galette, salsa and salad

Norman cheese plate

A concoction of Nutella sauce, creme Chantilly aka sweetened whipped cream and nuts

Tarte Tatin

Restaurant L'homme de Bois
02 31897527
30-32, rue de L'Homme de Bois
14600 Honfleur

We had the 4 courses menu (own choice of entree, main, standard cheese and dessert) each (so 8 plates in total) which sent us into a food coma! 

Our favourites would be the mains. My scallops were so sweet and succulent. Wk's beef were cooked a bit too rare and it wasn't a good cut of beef but the highlight was the potato galette - SO delicious. The foie gras terrine wasn't what I expected to be and to be honest isn't the kind of foie gras I enjoy. Wk's shellfish was good. The desserts although nothing wrong with them, they were forgettable. The cheeses as we have expected, were really good cheeses since it's the main produce of the region. Unfortunately it eventually upset my tummy :( More about that in future post. 

We took a short stroll after the lunch to get some digestion going since it was such a heavy meal, before driving to Mont Saint-Michel.

  

I won't pretend I know or am interested in history (lol) so from my understanding, Mont Saint-Michel is a tiny island with an ancient town in Normandie which has a famous abbey and a beautiful view. And lots of Japanese tourist, which is not a problem or anything but we found it odd that it's as though this place is frequented by Japanese tourist that the souvenir shops have Japanese words and Japanese speaking sales assistants.

 

Our tiny room and tiny beds

 

The red arrow points to our room's balcony which overlooks the bay

I remember clearly I didn't sleep well and woke up feeling sick in my stomach the next day FML. I'll leave the rest of the details of our stay in Mont Saint-Michel in the next post.

Till then!