Le Mont St. Michel, la grosse stupidité

First of all, yes, Mont St. Michel was fabulous... First we visited St. Malo, which, despite being a little touristy, was a very neat walled city. You could walk around the entire perimeter on the ramparts, with an excellent view both of the scenery outside the city - the ocean and scattered islands, sailboats, etc. - and of the neat, narrow roads full of shops, gardens, etc. within the city. I ate an excellent galette and crêpe for lunch (I really am going to miss those) and then we went on to Mont St. Michel.

A town built on a rather small mountain, Mont St. Michel is also surrounded by lovely scenery: a sheep farm, a winding river, vast expanses of grass and trees, etc. Of course, right up next to it is just a vast expanse of sand, because when the tide comes in - which it did right as we were leaving - it becomes an island. I hear the tide comes in so fast ("faster than a galloping horse") that people drown in it; either that, or they are sucked under by quicksand! Yikes...

One of the things I like most about Mont St. Michel is its verticality. It really is not a very big area - the base is fairly small. So everything is built on top of each other. The road that winds around the semi-island tunnels under the buildings that are above... It's really pretty cool. It's kind of a climb to the top, but of course, that's where the abbey - the whole reason the town even exists - is located. It was started in 708 after a bishop had a vision of the archangel St. Michael telling him to build a religious site on top of this mountain. Over the centuries the site grew more and more important, and the building on it got bigger and bigger. It's really kind of a feat of engineering because first of all, it couldn't have been easy to get huge blocks of granite up to the top of this mini-mountain/island a thousand years ago, and secondly, since the abbey is built right at the point of the mountain, the actual rock base is very small - and they kept enlarging the structure around it by means of fabricating a larger and larger foundation. So these days the outermost passageways are closed because there isn't enough support at the periphery. It's really quite fascinating!

There were way too many people there, though. It was hard to walk through the narrow streets and every room of the abbey was crowded. We couldn't take our tour as a group because the tour guide already had about 50 people and with all of 60 of us added on to that, it was just too huge. But two other students and I waited for the next tour, which was well worth it (and good practice for my French listening skills, too!). It was hard to imagine the place tranquil, quiet, and full of meditating monks like it was several hundred years ago, though!

So, about this stupidity business. Somehow, and I really couldn't say how, I had a little misunderstanding about when my courses were starting at the university. The French system is pretty confusing, I'll grant myself that much. Two of my classes start next week (Philosophy and Translation). But my most important course, Politics, which counts for my major, well... Unbeknownst to me, that course started last week. I have already missed 6 hours worth of that course, which is going to be difficult for me to follow already, given that it's for regular French students... and now I'm two classes behind. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed to discover this information. Especially when I think how restless I've been waiting for courses to start! Oh, it's hard not to let it get me down. But I just remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, a lot worse could have happened. I can speak to the professor, borrow notes from a French student, etc. It's not the end of the world... but it sure is frustrating. At least, when this study abroad business is all over, I can attest to the fact that it certainly was a challenge!