France 2026 - Day 9 / Caen

Steps today: 15 610

Moving on again today to Caen, a longish train journey from Rennes with a change in Le Mans.

We arrived at the hotel a little before 11AM and the Gods were smiling because the room was ready. Always so nice to be able to get into the room right away!

The room was HUGE! so much room to really spread out and extra convenient to dry our umbrellas later since our blue-skies streak was coming to an end.

The shower was a bit of a challenge since it had no walls or doors. We had to be strategic with the curtain  not to soak the entire bathroom, but we got the hang of it.

First on the agenda was lunch

Then the Église Saint-Pierre

We wandered around the city, at this point it was still just drizzling...

I enjoyed playing with the A.I. erase feature on my phone for pictures.

I became hooked on the feature, and now when I look at pictures all I can see is what I didn't cut out like garbage bins and parking meters.

Next the Abbaye aux Hommes to see William the Conqueror's Tomb (underwhelming)

The rain was getting stronger now, so the umbrellas were out and we sought shelter with a drink

While taking a load off, I got an email saying our train on Saturday to the next home base was cancelled. The plan was Caen to Le Havre with a transfer in Rouen, and the Rouen - Le Havre portion was scrubbed. I got a 100% refund on all the legs (61$ total) and rebooked a new route (which now 3 days out instead of 4 months) would cost 150$ GRRRR . What bothered me the most was that we'd now arrive at 2PM instead of 10:30AM - it felt like we were losing a day, but things like this happen on vacation. Gotta roll with the punches.

The rain wasn't letting up, but rather than ordering another round, we went somewhere else to eat instead. Typically, I had wine and cheese but didn't take pictures because I was too distracted with the ongoing train re-routing situation. On the way to this next café, we passed by a bus map that I stopped to consult for our day trip plans tomorrow, and while examining it I noticed there was a bus to Le Havre! WHAT?!?! How did I not realise this when I was booking all the trains months and months ago? A little Google and Chat GPT searching and it turns out the bus would easily get us there by 10:30AM like we originally planned and best of all would only cost 11€ each! So roughly 35$ instead of the 150$ that I had just paid for the new train tickets!! Therefore, instead of snapping shots of the cheese, I was trying to get the second round of tickets refunded. Success!...  minus the booking fee of 15$.  All in all, we came out ahead. The bus fare and the non-refundable fee combined still came out to less than the original train tickets.  YAY!

After this, we headed over to the Abbaye aux Dames.

We were getting fed up of the drizzle. It wasn't that bad, but the wind was picking up and the cold was getting to us.  

We ducked into a third place now for snacks and drinks, and we declared this would be supper and that would be it for the day.

We were sick of feeling cold and didn't want to get actual sick. From a melting hot day yesterday to a cold, drizzly, damp day today, this could not be doing our immune systems any good! We were back in the room relaxing before 7PM.

France 2026 - Day 8 / Mont Saint-Michel

Steps today: 18 448 ....  I'm suspicious! 

Today's day-trip is one we we'd been looking forward to for a long time: Mont Saint-Michel. 

Getting there from Rennes was very easy; just one coach bus all the way from the train station near our hotel. The ride is about 1h15 and overall is much simpler than the train.

The bus drops you off at the tourist office for Mont Saint-Michel where you can then take a free 10-minute shuttle, or walk 35 minutes to enjoy the view. Obviously we chose walking and it's so worth it. I feel you'd be missing out if taking the shuttle.

This view is so worth it!...  how to pick just one picture?

To be honest, this was the highlight of the day. The views walking up to it.  Once there, it's a tourist trap and all shopping.... not a whole lot to do for us aside from admire the views and have a drink before visiting the Abbey.

We walked along the bottom for a while since the mud was dry and wouldn't destroy our shoes.

I would have liked to see what it looks like when the tide comes in to compare

The Abbey visit was nice, I had no idea how complex it all was - it's NOT for people with reduced mobility - lots of stairs, lots of rooms, lots of up and down... I had no idea! 

After the visit, we went to the Église Saint-Pierre where we lit a candle for our fur baby JR who died on this day 7 years ago. He was so sweet and we still miss him.  I know it's a little silly to light a candle for a cat all these years later, but we like thinking about him.

And then of course: lunch.... in the SLOWEST RESTAURANT ON EARTH. Thankfully we were not in a hurry because our bus back to Rennes was only at 4:45, and it's not like it was taking time out of a shopping spree schedule, but still it was a little ridiculous. 

I wish I had taken a better picture of the view.

Enjoyable meal, can you spot the sausage in my plate under all that sauce? And why the salad dressing on the cheese?

We were done by about 2ish, puttered around a little more for an hour or so and decided to walk back.

OMG IT WAS MURDER!!! The temps were 'only' in the high 20s and I was almost in tears it was so miserable. How did people survive the heatwave this summer? This walk in the full-on sun was unbearable.  I held my jacket over my head like a cape/tent to get some shade, and after a while I thought my arms would fall off!  Taking the shuttle back was a non-starter, the line-ups waiting for it were loooooong and also in the full sun. 

Once we were done walking the length of the exposed causeway, we found a café and relaxed for an hour. I was so hot and sticky and grumpy that I didn't even bother with pictures.

We got back to Rennes around 6PM and supper was just a snack at the terrasse in front of the hotel again. The no-resto-repeat rule was really taking a beating, but it was a nice place and really perfect to be so close to "home".

After supper, time to pack up since we were moving on again the next day.