Normandy - My day with the man from the Rotary

As an exchange student, I had one task that had to be fulfilled. I had to go to a Rotary meeting and give a talk about Paarl, the town that I am from. It was quite impressive, even if I say so myself. I spent hours driving around taking photos and getting slides made so that they'd be wow-ed by my home-town. (and from their reaction, I think they were impressed).

I was introduced to a lovely older gentleman, Emil and I was told that he would be my guide the next day to take me to the Mont-St-Michel.

We departed early the next morning and I found him very pleasant and easy to talk to. We stopped at the museum of the Mont-St-Michel and I could clearly see that the place was still closed - in fact, the board outside the museum with the opening times on it confirmed that they would not open for at least another 30 minutes, so I could not believe the man's "cheek" when he walked to the door and demanded (in a friendly way) that they open up early for us. The thing that shocked me even more, was that they agreed. Wow - "Quelle Authorite", as the French would say.

The museum was very informative and I thought it was an excellent way of explaining how the sea currents contributed to the "specialness" of the Mont-St-Michel.

Next, we had lunch - the best lunch that I had had up to that point in my life. We had one of those famous 5- or 6-course meals that everyone seemed to have in this magical foodie heaven. Only, this time we had it for lunch. I always thought that nothing could top South African Karoo lamb, but I promise, the lamb in this area is right up there with the best that the Karoo has to offer! And the cheese...oh, the cheese...

After our culinary feast, we continued to the Mont-St-Michel. Unlike the rest of the visitors, who struggled to find parking, we drove right to the front and just stopped right by the entrance. Wow, we were on a lucky streak.

In the little town, people seemed to come out of their shops and restaurants to greet us...what friendly people! (or so I thought). We walked all the way up to the abbey and when we got there, the priest gave us a huge key (one of those keys that you have ever only seen on TV or the movies). Emil and I walked up the spiral staircase with all the other tourists to go see the beautiful view that I had been promised, but instead of going with all the rest of the people, he told me to follow him. He opened this big old door with the super-special key and we continued up the spiral staircase. By this stage, I was pretty tired of all the climbing, since I'm not the fittest/most active person at the best of times, but since my tour guide, who was in his 60's didn't look the slightest bit tired, I continued without a peep.

We got to the top of the tower and the view was everything I expected - and more! Just absolutely breath-taking! It also felt pretty cool to look down at the "plebs" who were all pointing at us. I could see they were wondering the same thing as me...how did we wangle this? I had no idea, but I wasn't complaining. I liked this VIP treatment.

We made our way back down to the car and on our way, we had a quick coffee at a little restaurant. The owner was very interested in us and continued to talk to Emil. When we left, the owner refused payment. This was my lucky day..and what a special day it was.

After Emil took me home, I could not help talking about our great day, and how lucky we were that everything just worked out so great for us. My host family smiled and Frenchie said: "well, that is the way that the mayor of the Mont-St-Michel gets treated". My mouth fell open, I just spent the entire day with this man, and I had no idea that he was the mayor. Apparently they told me the previous night, but I was either too nervous about my talk, or too tired to understand.

Oh well, I had a great day  and the mayor of the area is a lovely lovely man.