It seems the best views are only available when you climb the stairs… Livonne

I hardly slept last night. I tossed and turned after I turned the light out. Finally at about 3am, I put my sleep hyposis on and I got to the end of it which I’ve never done before. I must have dozed off not long afterwards though, and woke again at about 7.30am. I would have stayed in bed longer but Sonia, the amazing lady who does all the cleaning of the Chateau was coming at 9 to do our rooms, so I got out of bed.

When I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I realised what lack of sleep does to the face. The bags under my eyes would have me paying big time for extra luggage. So instead of heading downstairs in my jammies looking like a bag lady, I got dressed, put make up on and headed down to have a cup of tea. Everyone seemed to be a little late coming for their morning cuppa so I think everyone was feeling a little ordinary this morning.

Once breakfast was done, the chateau quickly became a hotbed of activity. Sonia started the clean and people scattered to get their work done. I was doing my first photo shoot this morning with Tania, so I set about gathering what I needed for that and went upstairs to start. It turned out so well. She was the perfect model and I got what I needed for the vision in my head. Lots of editing to do on it now but that had to wait as we were off to Mont Saint Michel just after lunch.

I think it was about 2.5 hours from here to Mont Saint Michel and we arrived at the parking lot with some time to spare. The problem of course is that from the parking lot, you have to walk up to get the shuttle bus that will take you over the bridge to the incredible landmark. We got on the bus which was packed and got over there just before the time we had booked a guided tour for. To be honest, I took one look at all the stairs and was worried if I could do that many stairs.

The chateau if full of stairs, Mont Saint Michel is full of stairs. Almost every place with the best views is full of stairs. After my fall the other day, my knee hates it when I decide to do stairs and it hurts to pay me back for my decisions. Anyway, we fought through the crowds and I do mean that. It is a narrow little path leading up to the abbey and it is packed with people. It was quite claustrophobic. And it is damn steep even before you come to the stairs.

As we were running short on time, we were really rushing and it just got too much for us oldies in the group so we said to the others to go on ahead and we would forgo the tour and just head up at our own pace. We were feeling a bit overwhelmed with the crowds and having to rush so we sat down to have a cuppa and some crepes. We were so looking forward to them. When we went to order them, we were told we couldn’t. Just drinks and icecream so we ordered that instead. Turns out we could have had crepes if we went upstairs in the restaurant. Now even food is taunting us with stairs.

After we’d had our ice cream and coffees, Cate came down as her ticket was on Beth’s phone, so she had walked up and had to come back and find us for it. I would hate to feel how her legs must be feeling after having done it twice. We wandered out and were just going to sit on one of the stone walls and wait for everyone, but Cecile (AGAIN) said those words.. We can do this. She says I said it but I’m sure that’s not how it happened.

So Beth was happy sitting and people watching and Cecile and I braved the stairs. We fought out way up and were happy to be standing in line so we could catch our breath again, when the woman said, no more tickets today. Everyone started to drop out of the line and we were a bit miffed as we had tickets to go into the Abbey. I said to the woman in front “oh great.. we have tickets and can’t use them’. She said, no if you have tickets you can, so we went up to the woman who had sent them away. She told us we could go through but the abbey was closing in 4 minutes.

We looked at the stairs in front of us and knew it would be a challenge but we’d come this far, so we pushed on. OMG.. What a climb. Just as we got to the top of those steps, another lady working there said, you’ll have to hurry, they are about to shut the doors. So we dragged ourselves as quick as we could and they were lovely and patient as they could see how much we were struggling. As we walked through the doors, they closed them behind us. Looking at yet another steps of horrendously steep steps we thought we might just head back down again, but no. There was no way out now but up.

So we kept going. Every time we thought we’d finally made it there was another bloody set of steps. This is not for the faint hearted let me tell you. Finally after what seemed like 47 million stairs, we finally made it up to the area surrounding the abbey near the top. Oh what a glorious site. Mont Saint Michel is an old fortress kind of abbey build on an island. And the surrounding land was all water but the tide is out a lot, so you can walk across the empty sea beds to get there. I’m so glad we decided on the shuttle bus instead.

Once we’d got into the abbey, I stupidly challenged the beautiful building by saying “oh well, at least it’s all downhill from here on in” and boy did it set out to prove me wrong. Yes we were heading down stairs. Yes, it was mostly down hill. But there are a lot of uphill parts to take you back to the downhill parts. Honestly, it was physically one of the hardest things I’ve done. It was up there with the Great Wall of China. But so worthwhile for the view at the top.

From out vantage point, we could see groups of people, barefoot on the damp but empty sea beds, pants rolled up, enjoying themselves. There was the typical influencer who has to stop at everyone perfect opportunity and primp and preen for the camera while expecting everyone to get out of their shot. I did try with one woman, but you know what? I was on the downhill run and she was stopping so many times, I stopped caring. If I’m in her shots, bad luck.

Anyway, we finally got to where the others were waiting and we headed back out to the bus area, through a lesser crowd than before but still heaps of people. Group photo done, we lined up with everyone to catch the shuttle. Again it was so packed that we had to stand up but that was okay. We walked back to our van and headed off for dinner in Alencon, nearer to the chateau.

It was another long drive back, so I did a bit of editing while we drove, and then tried to rest a bit, though there was much laughter happening and it wasn’t conducive to resting. We got to the restaurant about 8.30 I think and the waiter took our drinks orders. That done, the menus were brought to us but of course, all in French, so good old translate on the phones came out and we all knew what we wanted.

Simply put but nowhere near as eloquently as the menu, I had chicken ravioli in a beef Thai broth for entree. Then a medallion of rump steak with a round of potatoes cooked in cream and camembert cheese with apples and another sauce of some sort. OMG, So good. Then dessert was a lemon curd type thing, with lemon sorbet, little meringues and some raspberry coolee all served with some tiny gingerbread snap, type things. Let me tell you, as full as I was, I enjoyed every bite of the whole meal.

By this time, we were all getting so tired and coupled with a couple of wines, we couldn’t be sensible anymore. Poor David having to drive us home. Anyway, we got here quite late and I think everyone headed straight to bed. Tomorrow which is Good Friday, we will probably go grocery shopping and pick up a few more supplies if the shop is open then it will be work time again. I have another shoot planned tomorrow and I can’t wait. It’s after 1am now so I’m about to turn the light out and hope I am more successful at sleep than yesterday..

Happy sleeping.. Livvy xxx