Mont Saint-Michel

Finally I am getting a chance to write about this, and just a day before I embark on the journy once again!

Towards the end of first session our trip for earth day was to Mont Saint-Michel. Mont Saint-Michel is sometimes an island and sometimes part of the land. It all depends on the tides. The story goes that the arch angel Michael told the bishop in the area to build a church there and so he did.

The 'pilgramage' to the island is what made the trip. It consisted of about an 8 kilometre walk from the main land through the muddy marsh that lays between Mont Saint-Michel and the main land. We went with a tour guide who knew the safest route as we had to cross through areas of water just past our knees. There was a lot of mud, which I found cool. Fun stuff to run around on and play in.

The tour guide also explained different things along the way, but the guide was in French so the only thing I caught was when she was telling the kids to close their mouths. One thing she explained which was translated was about a lone pink flamingo that escaped from the zoo and lived in the area. It was a super rare sight to see, but sure enough we did catch a glimpse of it. It was far off in the distance so I did not get a picture of it that it was visable in unless you zoom in completely. At that point it is only a blur.

We never actually got the chance to go inside. By the time we walked there it was time to catch the bus and have our snack and return to camp. Hopefully the same thing doesn't happen tomorrow.

The coolest part about the trip was the quick sand. The tour guide had us create our own by continuelly stomping on the ground in a fixed area. Then we got to bounce across it like a trampoline. It was pretty cool. Then she showed us how to get stuck in it, and how to 'unstick' ourselves, which is a series of quick jerks. It was pretty cool. She explained why it happened but I did not understand.