St Malo Ramparts, City Wall, St Malo, Mont St-Michel Day Trip

St Malo Ramparts, City Wall, St Malo

Brittany Normandy Day Trip – St Malo

After Versailles, we took a Brittany Normandy Day Trip from Paris to Mont St Michel, St Malo and Dinan.  The day trip took a long full day.  It was arranged by LinkParis.com.  First we started on the high speed TGV from Gare Montparnasse to St Malo. Our 8 passenger tour van with Link Paris started off by delivering us to the walled city.  In just over an hour we walked round the entire walled fortification, wandered the narrow streets enclosed by the walls and visited the cathedral.  The highlight was purchases made at the bakery – galette complete is a savory wheat crepe with ham, egg and cheese.  The crepe au beurre et sucre was the best I’ve ever had.  We also indulged in crokochocolat and Kouign amann.

Visit Mont St-Michel, Normandy, France

Mont St-Michel, Normandy, France

Brittany Normandy Day Trip – Mont St-Michel

The feature attraction on the tour is Mont St-Michel.  The causeway to the island was replaced with a bridge a few years ago.  There is a free bus on the bridge or you can ride a horse drawn wagon.  Everyone must walk the last few hundred meters.  The monastery was a multi-level tangle of different phases of construction over the centuries.  Much of it is dark and narrow.  The stained glass in the top level church was very plain.  The adjoining small village on the island was a maze of narrow passages and wall top paths.  The lowest level of the village follows the Grand Rue street.  It had high priced foods and souvenirs catering to the 3 million people a year who visit here.  I thought St Malo was a lot more fun, but probably that’s because there were far fewer tourists.

Brittany Normandy Day Trip – Dinan

The third stop was the stone village of Dinan, which also sports some ancient timber construction.  It wasn’t as impressive as the other two stops, but it did have a similar feel.  From there the tour van drove us to Rennes.  Then we took the high speed train back to Paris.  It was a very long but worthwhile experience.

St Malo Slide Show Gallery

Mont St-Michel Slide Show Gallery

Dinan Slide Show Gallery