France: Part V

Day 9
We started off our 9th day with a delivery of fresh bread and pastries. Definitely a civilized way to "camp"! Then we loaded the kids into the bike trailer and rode to Chateau Chenonceau, which was located just down the river. There's nothing like a nice crinkly package of tissues to keep everyone entertained.









Originally built as a pleasure palace, the chateau was used as a hospital during WWII. It stood in Allied territory but the river constituted the boundary and German occupied France was just through the door at the end of this gallery.



Baby soup?



The grounds-keeper's house. Not too shabby.







The weight of the bike helmet was just too much to bear. Just kidding! She fell asleep on way the way back. I mean, if this doesn't scream "comfort" I'm not sure what does!



After another lovely RV lunch we headed off toward Mont St. Michel. We had an unfortunate GPS incident which lead us to take the highway in the wrong direction. This would not have been a big deal, but we could not turn around or exit for 30km and it was an expensive mistake as the tolls in France are crazy. Our highest one-time toll payment was approximately e37 and we estimate that we spent about e300 total on road tolls during the trip. Keep in mind that the exchange rate is almost $1.50 to e1.

We pulled up to Mont St. Michel at about 8:15pm and we couldn't have timed it better if we had tried. We parked just off the causeway and directly in front of the abbey with just enough time to walk outside and enjoy a beautiful sunset.













Keeping it real. ;)





The view from our window. We took our last RV showers and were all ready for an early start in the morning.



Day 10
We rolled out of bed and walked straight to the abbey. Our evening arrival had been perfect for seeing the sunset and now we were among the first sightseers to start up the single road to the church. Mont St. Michel is a big destination for tourists and pilgrims. We were grateful for our timing as we later passed huge crowds descending on the small "village" just as we were leaving.









There were quite a few stairs.



You can see the RV parking area at the top of this picture. Brennan walked the entire way, stairs included... what a trooper!







Still smiling! Brennan, Isla and I were still battling our eternal colds during this trip, which is why our noses look a little raw in some of these pictures.



Before hitting the road we stopped at the Mont St. Michel Biscuiterie for some yummy cookies made with sea salted butter.



Free samples!



We spent the night at a somewhat shady pullout in Belgium that was full of trash and covered in graffiti.

Day 11
On Sunday morning we only had a few more hours to go when Patrick proposed we take advantage of our huge vehicle and shop the weekly antique market in Tongeren, BE. In a daring move we snagged some illegal parking and tried to fit in all of our browsing before the ticketing officer made it down our row. We were hunting a desk, preferably one with all those little cubbyholes, compartments and letter slots. At some point we started refocusing on partner desks though, and we actually found one in good shape for a reasonable price that we could both live with. We can maxi-pack our Prius to within an inch of it's life, but there is no way this desk would have fit. We stashed the desktop on our bed and wedged the other pieces in where we could. We didn't even get a parking ticket!



Home, sweet home. The RV looking "well traveled" and sporting faunal samples from 4 countries.



We made it!



A quick picture of the bathroom.