Rivers & Roads

Last weekend was Labor day here in Belgium therefore everyone had the 1st & 2nd off from work, so Simon, I and two friends Pieter and Lisa decided to take a little trip to France! We have not done much traveling so I was excited to take a little trip and do some camping! Thursday morning Simon's parents kindly let us borrow one of their cars and we hit the road! Our destination was Mont St Michel, but we were going to make a few stops along the way throughout Normandy. The first day we drove a few hours along the coast to see the beautiful white chalk cliffs that line the ocean. The weather was not so great, a bit rainy and foggy but we still made the most of it. We were able to walk down to the rocky beach and see these magnificent cliffs up close. After that we drove to our first camping spot which was near the town of Honfleur. The camping area was quite nice, everyone has their own designated area and there was a nice river flowing right next to it. For dinner we went into Honfleur, which turns out to be a really beautiful, picturesque little port town. We ate some delicious and cheap sea food and took a nice walk before heading back to the campsite.
The next day we drove straight to Mont St Michel! I had seen lots of pictures and heard it was a magical place to go but I did not really know what to expect. First of all there were A LOT of tourists! We thought it might be a little less crowded because we were going a bit more in the off season, but probably because of the long weekend the place was packed. The island is located about 1/2 a mile off the coast so you can either park your car and walk across the bridge which takes about 45 minutes or they have free shuttles running every few minutes that will drive you across. Right now they are in the process of building a new bridge to make it easier for everyone to be able to walk across, but all the construction kind of takes away from the beautiful view. None the less we decided to take the bus to save us some time. The island itself is this beautiful maze of small crowded streets, lots of shops to buy food or souvenirs, and of course the beautiful monastery. We unfortunately picked the wrong day to come, the workers were on strike and we were not aloud to go inside of the monastery. That was a bit disappointing but it was still worth the trip. We ate a small picnic lunch and just wandered the streets for hours. That evening we drove to our second camping spot which was near the town of Bayeux, which is famous for housing the oldest tapestry in the world. We had a nice cosy dinner there, the town it self did not have a lot going on, but we were all pretty tired from the day and just went back to the campsite to sleep.
Of course on our last day and the day we needed to drive all the way back to Belgium was the day the sun decided to come out. We took advantage of it in the morning playing a nice game of Kubbs before we hit the road. Unfortunately for Simon he had to do most of the driving, we are not sure if my license works here or not, and not one wanted to risk having an accident in his parents car. But we made if back to Belgium in one piece and had a great time exploring the beautiful country side of Normandy.
This past weekend Simon went to the Sea to have a fun weekend with some of his boy scout friends while I stayed in Gent and had a nice low key weekend in the city. I went to a fun concert at a really nice venue here in Gent called the Vooruit, it a really great old building that holds lots of concerts and parties, I was excited to finally get to go inside. I only have a little over a week left here in Gent which is crazy! It feels like I just got here. We will try to pack in a few more fun activities, including celebrating Simon's birthday because I won't be here to celebrate with him. Below are pictures from the trip, I hope you enjoy and I will see some of you very soon!