An afternoon excursion (Mont Saint Michel)

I am glad I have read Against a dark background by Iain Banks.  In that book the beginning of a superb story is set on a giant beach. On that beach is located a mysterious castle towering above the beach and not welcoming of outsiders to keep whatever is inside secret from the outside world.  Banks must have been to Mont Saint Michel (let's call it MSM from now on) but he had mercy with his readers and omitted the organized cattle-herding-like method of shuttling tourists in and out of that place.  I did not go in (not only the lack of time but I did not want to destroy the rest of the illusion created by that wonderful book).

For the record:  MSM is located at the mouth of a river.  The road to the island is located East of that river.  The river divides Brittany from Normandy.  I was in Normandy this afternoon! Which means I cycled all of the coast of Brittany ;-) (OK, so I took a train from Dol-de-Bretagne to Pontorson, but I cycled the 18 km return trip from Pontorson to MSMl)

Pictures:

A first sighting from 7 km away

Rocinante goes even faster: Windmills !!

4 km away (bike on the parking lot of a tourist mall )

3 km away: a tourist shopping Mecca (tourists had to leave their cars 1 km behind and have to use shuttle buses)

Either you walk, bike, or pay for a shuttle bus

Shuttling them back to their cars or tourist buses

The construction-site feel never makes it onto postcards

Pretty?

If it wasn't Sunday, they'd probably be digging too!

I'm getting good at catching them in flight ;-)

Time to turn my back (tail light?) on this place

Need some time for reflection  ;-)