paris: the lost day

day 7 in paris was supposed to consist of visiting castles.

instead, we spent the first half of the day in the airport battling rental car companies.

so here is a travel trip for you. 

always. ALWAYS. reserve your rental car ahead of time.

even if it's just the evening before you need it.

make a reservation.

we needed a rental car for three days.

the people at the counter tried to tell us it was five.

they tried to charge us over 700 euro. 700 euro!

that's over $1000, people.

they were confounded to find out we intended to drive over 100 kilometer. 

we toyed with the idea of catching a train to london or barcelona.

in the end we used neal's iphone to make rental car reservation.

some nice girl let us plug into her laptop for 20 minutes in order to get his phone charged up to conduct the transaction.

then the lady at the desk

cranky about us going online and getting the car for three days with unlimited miles

for a little over $200

made us wait for two hours before giving us the car.

so we sat on the floor in front of the rental counters and played phase 10.

travel tip number 2.

always. ALWAYS. have a deck of cards.

once we got the car, it was obvious we would not have time to visit castles.

instead we headed out to our destination for the next day.

mont saint-michel

the day wasn't a total loss.

it must be said, french countryside is as picturesque as it's hyped up to be.

really, really quaint and beautiful.

and we had the best meal of the entire trip at some random place along the side of the road

la maison.

behold:

we almost died when the waitress set this down in front of craig. i cannot eat meat off a bone.
he doesn't have any qualms, though, and apparently it was delicious.

neal and i ordered a galette with ham, potato, and camembert cheese. they were ridiculously good.

dessert 

apple cakes, apple ice cream, some kind of sauce. delicious.

crepe with salted toffee ice cream, caramel, and whipped cream. i will recreate this someday. amazing!

after dinner, we found a place to stay, then decided to go for a walk.

we had no idea what a treat we were in for.

i'm quite sure mont saint-michel at night is the most beautiful thing i'll ever see in my life.

it sits out in the bay, about 2 kilometers off shore. there is one man-made road that goes out to it.

walking those 2 kilometers is like walking toward a fairy tale made tangible.

it's impossible to describe or capture in a picture.

it must be experienced for oneself.

this was my favorite night of the trip.