La Vieille Auberge et la Mère Poulard

I think the first time I ever went to see the Mont-Saint-Michel was in 1972. I was living and working in Normandy (Rouen) that year. Three or four of us, all teaching assistants in French lycées (high schools), rented a car (I think) and drove over there. That was many decades before I started taking a lot of photographs. I was 23 years old and was spending my first year in France.

In June 2006, Walt and I went to the Mont with a friend from California and spent most of a day there. The streets and shops were so crowded that we told our friend we could deal with the mobs. She said she wanted to go souvenir shopping and also wanted to take some photos. We told her we just wanted to go have lunch. We told her we would go to the Vieille Auberge (the Old Inn), which you see in these pictures. The guy in the red shirt and vest was our waiter. I think we probably ate moules marinière (steamed mussels served with frites).

In March 2007, Walt and I back went to the Mont-Saint-Michel and spent the night of March 5th in a hotel room on the Mont — that was our birthday present to me. I don't remember where we ate dinner, but I remember the restaurant was good and not crowded. There were just enough other people having dinner there that it was lively and interesting. It was fun to walk around the Mont at nighttime. The next morning it was raining torrents and we got soaked running back to the car to drive home. Then I knew I really was in Normandy.

One place where we never ate lunch or dinner is the Mère Poulard's restaurant, which is one of the Mont's most famous attractions. It specializes in omelets. Maybe one day we'll go back there and try one.

Mont-St-Michel — salt marshes or salt meadows?

The Mont-Saint-Michel is something you (or I) just can't stop taking pictures of. I wonder how many I've taken on my 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 trips to the place. Here are some more. I took all of them in 2006. You can enlarge them by tapping or clicking on them. The third photo below shows the mud flats and salt marshes (salt meadows) that surround the Mont, as did some of the photos I posted yesterday. Sheep graze on the marsh land. The meat from the lambs is reputed to be some of the best lamb in France.

Arriving at the Mont St-Michel from Domfront

Here are some pictures I took when we arrived at a point where we could see the Mont St-Michel from afar and take some pictures. We had to share the landscape with sheep and cattle. We were there on June 20, 2006, and the place was a mob scene. We went back in early March 2007 for my birthday, and the crowds were not overwhelming at that time of year.

The pictures above and below are some that I took in the space of about 20 minutes as we walked around on little roads and along canals that cut through the salt marsh. I'm posting them in chronological order. As always, you can tap or click on the to enlarge them.

Leaving Domfront, headed west

Le Mont-Saint-Michel is just 40 miles almost due west of Domfront. That's where we were headed when we left Domfront back in June 2006. Our friend Sue from California was visiting, and she hadn't been there before. She had arrived in April that year for a three-month visit.

The hilltop town of Domfront in Normandy, and the Citroën

More good news: The Citroën C4 passed its contrôle technique inspection yesterday morning. I just did this calculation — over the past 24 months we have driven the C4 a total of about 1,700 miles (2,722 kms). That comes to about 70 miles per month. At this rate, the car will probably outlive me. It's almost 17 years old.

The only trip we took in it last year was a drive down to the small city of Angoulême, just 165 miles south of Saint-Aignan. No trips this year... To celebrate the 2024 inspection milestone, here are a few more photos I took years ago in the town of Domfront in lower Normandy, three hours northwest of Saint-Aignan.

Still walking around in Domfront...

...on the blog, I mean. I hope I'll get there another time one day, because I'd like to have lunch or dinner in one or both of the restaurants pictured below, Le Bistrot St-Julien and L'Auberge du Grand Gousier. Oh, I guess I should do some research and see if they survived the Covid pandemic. Many restaurants didn't. Oh,  L'Auberge du Grand Gousier seems to have permanently shut down, as I see on TripAdvisor and on the French Pages Jaunes web sites. I dialed the phone number listed on TripAdvisor for the auberge and heard a recorded message saying the number I dialed is no longer in service.

The shop on the left above advertises itself as a boucherie (a butcher's shop), a charcuterie (a pork butcher's shop), a triperie (a tripe shop) where poultry products (volailles) are also sold.

Domfront — couleurs

These are photos I took at Domfront in Normandy while I walked around with my camera, enjoying the colors of doors and storefronts. When you live in a place where the weather is often gray and the buildings are built with gray stone, splashes of color like these can really boost your spirits.

Above, a red door; the doors of a medical equipment store; and the sign on a crêperie/pizzeria (see the photo below).

A typical street in the hilltop town of Domfront. The population of the town was slightly above 5,000 in the late 19th century, but is down to 3,500 now.

The two storefronts with curtains on their windows appeared to be lived in and no longer used as shops.

Domfront — buildings and businesses

After going to Domfront for the first time in May 2005, we returned in June 2006, when we were on our way from Saint-Aignan to the Mont-Saint-Michel with our friend Sue from California. We took a long walk around the town and then spent a night in the hotel-restaurant below before continuing on to the Mont.

Domfront — paysages

The middle of May in 2005 in the southern part of Normandy around the town of Domfront. Green, green, green. This is an area where a lot of pears are grown and made into pear cider (poiré in French).