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Headed north to Normandy 80 miles northeast.
At Pontorson, rode a bus to door of Mont St. Michel.
There was no elevated highway, railroad train, bridge, carriage, or pony — just an old bus on flat wet sand.
Warning off all invading riff-raff who came near, St. Michael, as we call him, stood guard over the entire rock from the top of the tallest spire.
Knocked on a big door, 
and a monk opened it. Billet, s'il vous plâit? But the entrance fee was higher than my daily budget,
and I had already spent one daily budget on the bus trip.
I now regret my stinginess, but as Henry Adams, who essayed a lengthy attribute to this place, wrote back in the early 20th century,
In the eleventh century, the Church, however simple-minded or unschooled, was not cheap.
And I, who at the time could be classified as simple-minded and unschooled, can attest to the fact that, even into the late 20th century,
its reputation remained intact — this church was still not cheap.
Luckily, while I remember to pay my monthly broadband bill, the internet is, so far, free.
Thus, I can now tour St. Michael's mountain vicariously through the cameras of other tourists more prosperous than I in 1975.
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Mont St. Michel was built by Norman Vikings just before they invaded England and implanted their DNA into all of us pink people yet to be, and, as it turned out, most of us brown people, too. Those vikings got around. I get around — Get around round round I get around — From town to town... St. Michael according to our Christian mythology, was God's Archangel of War. Having defeated Satan in centuries past, in 1066 he was ready for the Brits, the Irish, and the Scots in centuries future. Successful in these enterprises, he then went on to conquer the Spanish, the French, the Indians, the other Indians, the Africans, the Australians, and most of the other parts of the world, but was finally confined to the beaches of the Zhongguo people, who preferred their own tea — it was greener. Last year, Terrence Malick, Heidegger scholar, premiered his To the Wonder, a movie featuring Mont St. Michel. Can't wait to see it — maybe in 3D even.
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Slept in Pontorson with Mont St. Michel in the distance.
