Hijinks in Dinan, Brittany

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By Norma Hopcraft

My French friend Martine, her little white dog Tibou, my sister Chris and I went from solemnity in the abbey of Mont St. Michel to hijinks in Dinan.

We'll get to the hijinks. First I'll show you picturesqueness. Walking through the center of the village of Dinan, we found the side street that descends to the river Rance and the port of Dinan (this village is quite a ways inland but it does connect to the ocean eventually). The street knocked us sideways, it was so powerfully charming. 

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Everywhere on the descent to the river we enjoyed charming scenes.

The descent to the port on the river Rance is steep, but that adds to the charm. Can you imagine living your life in one of these houses? What a beautiful scene to come home to.

The roofline is so French too.

I experimented with black and white on this same shot. What do you think? Which do you like better? Comment below!

Hydrangea in glorious bloom graced our time in Brittany and Normandy.

The perfect windowbox and the perfect sculpture for a home.

A half-timbered home dating from the Middle Ages, maybe 1200 or 1300. Just down the hill, we enjoyed an amazing lunch of galettes (crêpes in the Brittany style, made with buckwheat). Mine had honey and goat cheese in it. So fabulous! A very memorable meal.

The French gift for making beauty against old stonework.

When we got to the port, we saw that teams from Kiwanis clubs in the region were practicing rowing toward each other and then knocking the jousters (note: on a tilted platform) off each other's boats.

 

Even though these boats were rowed by men and women, they moved fast, and each jousting encounter was over quickly. There was only one opportunity, one thrust, to knock off your opposition.

The next day, Sunday, we went back to the port for the actual competition. The boats' teams were now dressed in costumes, like these characters from a famous French comic book series, The Adventures of Tintin. 

Here's a sea captain, Captain Haddock from the Adventures of Tintin, with a fake pipe that glowed. There were Native American teams in loincloths, teams dressed as zebras and other zoo animals, etc. The Kiwanis teams used their imaginations.

This team is dressed as construction workers, plus the caller, standing at the bottom of the jouster's platform, dressed as a ....?.... traffic cone?

Bagpipe music (we are, after all, in Brittany, with strong Celtic roots) played at the start of each jousting session.

5.

Here's a team with the King of England, his subjects -- and polo ponies.

Here's a joust in full costume, with bagpipe soundtrack.

                             This guy was shoved into the water, which was the whole point of the day.

How about you? Would you participate if your local Kiwanis or Rotary or Lions Club got up to such hijinks? Comment below!

And sign up for my newsletter in the top right corner to automatically get the next installment: the picturesque center village of Dinan. Then more from Brittany. Thanks!

Beauty in this World: Sunrise at Mont St. Michel, Normandy

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By Norma Hopcraft

Welcome to my blog, The Traveling Writer. I have great stuff for you! For the latest, sign up for my newsletter, The Traveling Writer, in the upper right corner.

Today I'm featuring a time-lapse video of sunrise over the 1,000-year-old abbey on Mont St. Michel. It was made this summer by a young man I met on the mount who generously shared his video. I'll get his name if I can.

With so much difficult news in the world these days, please take a moment to witness some of the beauty, some of the good things that this world still offers.

For more beauty, adventure and creativity, sign up for my newsletter, The Traveling Writer, to the right.

Celebrating 1,000 Years on Mont St. Michel

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By Norma Hopcraft

Mont St. Michel celebrates 1,000 years this year. Which is strange because parts of it are far older than that. 

I have a brochure in my hand that says the history of the island is thought to date to 708 when a bishop had a sanctuary built on the mount in honor of the Archangel Michael. 

It became a major pilgrimage site. In the 900s, the Benedictines settled on the Mont.

So don't ask me why France is celebrating 1,000 years this year. But they are, and the official celebrations began the day we left in July and continued into August. We escaped before a giant wave of tourists.

But why quibble about a few hundred years? The Mont is spectacular, rising from an absolutely flat tidal plain. It has areas of quicksand, which doesn't stop people from walking around on the tidal plain. It usually gets just a few feet of water at high tide.

We spent one night (got a fantastic price from Bookings.com) so we could have the island to ourselves early in the morning. 

We were there in early July, very soon after the solstice, and it was light out until 11:30 p.m. The seagulls of the island made a racket until nearly midnight and started up again with sunrise. They must be exhausted in summertime.

During the Hundred Years War, the fortifications of Mont-Saint-Michel resisted all British assaults and therefore the Mount has become a national symbol of identify.

Only a handful of people live full-time on the Mont, which gets overrun with tourists--like me. One of the residents said the whole world is there and it's very isolating.

A view from the ramparts.

Ancient stone walls and thriving plants.

A picturesque door, steps, and set of lions to guard it all.

A shot taken from near the steps to the Abbey.

This fellow landed next to me on the North Tower.

Incredibly old, hundreds and hundreds of years, and so beautiful.

The view out my hotel window. This is a residence -- I watched the owners go out for dinner.

The Abbey high above the houses and businesses.

A perfect window.

I got up early in the morning, before the buses with tourists arrived, and explored. Up one path or staircase, and down another. It was sublime.

The Mont's namesake, the Archangel Michael.

Knights in shining armor are another popular theme here.

A view of the bay at sunrise, above the North Tower.

The wash of colors in sky and sea was stunning all day long.

The agapanthus were stunning in Normandy and Brittany.

Another unexpected visitor.

The Abbey at the top of Mt. St. Michel. The straight line you see descending on the left is the track where supplies were once lifted into the abbey.

Just something picturesque.

The cloister in the Abbey, which is still inhabited today with Benedictine nuns and monks. 

One of the Abbey's doors.

During the French Revolution, 5 prisoners walked inside this wheel to bring supplies up the track into the Abbey, which was used as a prison.

From Mt. St. Michel we proceeded to Dinan. What a hoot that was! Wait 'til you see! Comment below, if you please, to boost me in the search engine. Thank you!

 

Bayeux Is a Special Place in Normandy

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By Norma Hopcraft

Bayeux in Normandy is a neat town. It's the home of the famous Bayeux tapestry, a 210-foot-long linen scroll. It's embroidered with scenes from the 1066 Norman invasion of England. You can see pictures of it here. 

As a person who has done a lot of needlework in her life, I recognize a work of art and a testament to women's craft. I attribute it to women's artistic achievement because historians think women made it--evidence indicates that only women in medieval England embroidered, according to BBC History Magazine. More info here. 

Bayeux is also the home of the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Bayeux, consecrated on 14 July 1077 in the presence of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, and his wife Matilda. All that survives from the construction of this period is the crypt, the towers at the western end and the first level of the nave.

It's lovely. It's one of the few cathedrals I will trouble you with. 

The town of Bayeux itself is picturesque. It has a river running through it. 

The houses along the river have water doors leading to their gardens.

Isn't this the perfect window?

The roofline of Bayeux. 

It's worth a visit, especially coupled with a side trip to the nearby Normandy invasion museums and sites. My experience in these historic places is here.