We went to a little local bar 2 doors down from our house (Au Bistrot Den Bas) – pretty quiet but quite pleasant.
Pam’s sardines were a bit of a no show as they were dry and overcooked.
Dinner :
I woke early and decided to go for a walk around while most people were still sleeping, about 6:30am (it was Easter Monday)
It was real cold, far too cold so I went back to the house and lit the gas fire.
We checked the weather and it looks like today was going to be the best weather over the next few days so we decided to head to Mont Saint Michel about 58km away.
Click the above to open Google Maps
Mont Saint-Michel is an island commune in Normandy, France. It is located approximately one kilometer off the country's northwestern coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. 100 hectares in size, the island has a population of 44, and 100s of shops and restaurants.
The original parking area has been flooded and damaged and now you must park quite a way away and catch a free bus to drop you off closer to the mount. The new car park is located at 2.5 km from the Mount on the continent. The shuttles getting to Mont-Saint-Michel leave directly from the parking lot. You get off at 400 meters from the entrance of Mont Saint-Michel
The cost for parking was 12.3 Euro for 2+ hours, I think this covers your for almost 24 hours but can’t quite remember.
We arrived at 9:15am and it was not too busy but even then our bus was chocka full of people.
The bus drops you off 400 meters away from the entrance.
We walked up to the entrance and then wanted some food since we did not have much to start the day with. We found a little restaurant La Vielle Auberge and sat outside and had a coffee and a crepe.
Crepe with Honey – 4.2 Euro, Coffee 2.50 Euro – prices here are a bit more expensive than in other places.
![[Group 5]-P1100281_P1100283-2 images](http://travel.crowe.co.nz/Images/Media/Sites/66/911ee443438f4e4aadb3882e7be5bf2dGroup-5-P1100281_P1100283-2-images.jpg "[Group 5]-P1100281_P1100283-2 images")
After a few hours we decided to leave and go back to the car and head to Cancale – about 50km away. It was also getting really busy then with almost continuous streams of people entering the mount.
We drove to cancale and were looking for the port but I think we got a slightly different place in the GPS, just beyond Cancale so we just kept going since we were almost at the end of the peninsula.
Click for a larger picture
We parked up in a car park and walked along to see if there was somewhere to eat, if not we would drive back to cancale.
There were two restaurants there and we chose the cheaper one and ate outside, Pam was cold as there was a cool breeze.
We ordered a coke and some cider, 2 different oyster dishes and a grande salad
The first oyster dish was Butter and Garlic (YUM), the 2nd is with Cream (YUM) and the grande salad had:
The salad dish was huge and it also comes with a couple of sauces and bread.
The big slab in the photo is Foie Gras and I had never tried it before. Pam refused to try it on principal of how they force feed the Goose…
It was very rich but also very nice, sort of hard to explain but I liked it a lot.
Lunch bill:
After lunch we went for a walk around the peninsula and then drove back to Dinan.
A great day out….
After our feast of a lunch we decided to have something simple for dinner – just a crêpe.
We went out looking for somewhere to eat and most were closed since it was Easter Monday night but there were a few Crêperies open.
We went to one that was full of people called crêperie ahna, recommended by Routard since 1996 – http://creperie-ahna.blogspot.com
The outside of the crêperie.
Chris had the Crepe Peche Melba which was Peaches and Ice Cream with a Raspberry Coulis, Chantilly Cream and Almonds
Pam had the Crepe Belle Helene which was Chocolate and Pears with Ice Cream, Chantilly Cream and Almonds
I had a beer and Pam just had some water
Le Chat beer
Costs:
Pam & I were quite hungry and while walking around the streets we found a restaurant that she tried to book into and supposedly we were booked in “tonight”
No sign of life even though it was after 4pm and I noticed their bookings were in a diary on todays date through the window.
No sign of our names on there so we decided to flag this restaurant and find something else later.
We decided on a restaurant called Auberge de Pelican just down the street from us.
Pretty quiet with really only us in the restaurant but is was only about 7pm.
We both ordered the Duck Leg with vegetables.
Just prior to our meal arriving we were given a bread roll, no butter or anything else with it!
The duck was lovely but the vegetables (potatoes, bacon and mushrooms) were over cooked and pretty sad (ok the mushrooms were good)
The cost was 17 Euro each.
Isn’t this what cheese should be like? Gooey Camembert 4.8 Euro for 250g
Pam during her hours of research found a restaurant that she wanted to go to when back in New Zealand. Their web site said they did not accept email reservations and you had to phone.
I tried to phone, in my pigeon French, forgot to leave my name. Then I got a lady from work who is French to contact them, but after 7 days no response to that either. So I ended up emailing them and finally our booking was confirmed.
Apon arrival in Honfleur we were quite amazed at the number of restaurants – literally 100’s of them everywhere, although most you could tell are typical tourist rubbish filled with chips on every order.
We booked in at 8pm and walked the 2 minutes to it from our room.
We said we had a reservation for "Crowe” and then he said are you “Holiday” which is my email address for holiday related stuff.
This was a nice fine dinning place, but like the rest of HonFleur most of the restaurants have fixed menus. A lot of restaurants also have standard menu items to order, but this place did not just basically a 30 Euro (with 40 Euro Option) or a 50 Euro (with a 60 Euro Option)
I really wanted to try the Foie Gras but it was on the main 50 Euro menu and the other items I wanted were on the 30 euro menu.
So I thought I can try the Foie Gras another day.
Pam & I both ordered the duck, with different starters and different deserts.
We ordered a bottle of Pinot Gris from Alsace – 30 Euro and quite nice with a very good length.
When we got there they served a small amuse bouche (no photo) and then they served a small pre-starter of a raw beetroot wafer along with salmon filled with a green pea mousse.
Pam ordered a “Velouté de Petits Pois Printanier, with Mozzarella di Buffala grillée et chorizo.” which basically is a pea soup with grilled buffalo mozzarella cheese at the bottom along with pea fronds.
I ordered the “Mousse, Nougat, de chevrè aux Fruits secs grillés salés, along with Asperges vertes et Jambon Ibérique vinaigrette miel et jus Betterave” and received the following dish which was Asparagus, an air dried salted ham, and silky smooth goat cheese with Pistachios and Almonds along with lovely little red droplets of Iberian honey vinaigrette and beetroot juice.
For the main we both had the dish titled “Poitrine de Canette Dorée ay sautoir, Epinard et Navet aigre doux citron Badiane, jus épicé.” which was duck with very smooth mashed potatoes, a sound disk of apple (quite thick) and a very rich jus”
For desert I ordered “Panna Cotta Passion Tartare D’annanas à l’estragon, Sorbet Litchi”
and Pam ordered “Dôme Chocolat Noisettes Caramélisées, Créme glacée noisettes torréfiées”
At the end of this we were quite full.
The then offered us a Calvados (for free) which was very nice and unexpected as we saw others did not receive this gift.
Overall a lovely night and not too expensive considering the location and class of restaurant.
so all up 97 Euro
We survived the day and started to fell pretty buggered by the time dinner time came around. We went out for a cider in a local bar/restaurant.
It was pretty small – about 250ml if that, and it was about 4.50 Euro
We decided to go back to the room and stopped off at one of the many cider shops around the town – this was only 2 doors down from our place and just a small shop.
The lady was very helpful and spoke some English and we bought two bottles of cider, about 750ml each for 9 euro.
We bought a Rosè and a brut – very simple with the rosè being only 3% and the brut 5%, along with some cheese and we were happy.
The ciders are very different than in NZ, basically they are fresh fermented juice and then I think they carbonate them and sell them. No aging by the sounds of things.
We had decided to venture out and eat some oysters a bit later but ending up sleeping instead.
