Mont Saint Michel

Thursday 17 March 2011

The day that couldn't be done - and wasn't. Continuing adventures on tour with the Laurentian Singers.
We got back from last night's concert and reception 30 minutes late which meant starting thirty minutes late as the coach driver had to have his minimum break. No problem but unfortunately, one of the faculty overslept, making us an hour late. Then the one of the coach's tyres blew as we drove on the autoroute..
We got to the American Military Cemetary 2 1/2 hours late, just in time for the choir to sing to a group which included quite a few veterans. Tears all round. We then had a really interesting tour with a charming and very knowledgable Welshman called Anthony who showed us the graves of the two brothers who were the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan.
No time to hang around and reflect as we had to sprint to Mont Saint Michel for a visit, if humanly possible. We got there fifteen minutes after the abbey had closed. Even without the problems we encountered, we would have had trouble fitting everything in. It's a crying shame as I know what they missed but there you go. I'm going to come back and do it justice one of these days. At least I got pictures.
Off to bed again - last night I got four hours sleep and the pace of the tour is about to get really hectic!

Caught Short

Wednesday 16 March 2011
Etretat, Normandy. It was freezing, but not cold enough to prevent some of the choir from dipping their feet in the Channel.
We came across this urinal, once common in France but fairly rare nowadays. The boys made use of it but there were more of them than there were places to pee - a bit like musical chairs but with an added sense of urgency. If you pee in public, someone is going to take your picture, or in this case, lots of people will take your picture.
It's gone 1am here. time for bed, another hectic day ahead, and another, and another...