Weekend in France

The last time I went to Paris with my friends, we literally spent the whole entire day in 2 department stores. Incredible.

This time, we made it out to picturesque Mont Saint-Michel. My first time driving outside the US went very well : ) The gas price was astonishing though - it cost us over $100 to fill up the tank in one of those small French cars. And I thought fuel back home was expensive...

There isn't much to do at Mt. Saint-Michel, considering that it's just a tiny island made entirely into a mega tourist sight. On our first day, we took a slow stroll around the town and the beach area, which turned into a silly drawing contest of "Who can draw the best monkey?". I couldn't remember what a monkey looked like...only the shape of its face. Someone was kind enough to take a photo of us with our masterpieces. He must've thought we were amusing....The drawing was followed by a even more silly photography session. Think yoga poses and sumo wresting.

We decided to spend a night on the island to get the night view and a quieter/tourist-free morning. Well, we got the lighted scenery all right (excellent opportunity to test out camera settings), but didn't wake up early enough to beat the crowds. Argh. After taking in the abbey the next day, we left the island and headed for lunch in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, we had to drive through all green, little activity lands. There were more cows around than people. But the food was yummy seafood.

Ran into major traffic on our way back to Paris. Stupidly, we forgot to ask where we were supposed to return the car at the station... I was stuck driving without directions, going through the taxi lanes and one way streets. My one friend jumped out of the car to get directions from the office. My other friend was a nervous wreck about the possibility of missing the last train to London (dedicated to work!). What a mess....but we made it onto the train just fine : )

It was so nice to be traveling with friends. I sometimes missed having people to chat with and eat with over the last 2 months.