Another sunny day here in Northern France, so we get on the road early in the Hymer and head for Mont Saint Michael.

From La Lucerne d’Outremer we take the D35/D973 to Avranches, which is a town with a massive cathedral perched high on a rocky escarpment. We turn south and then west on N175 towards le Mont Saint Michael. It is very busy the other way so we press on to Pontorson and north on D976 to Beauvoir, a small village just south of Mont Saint Michael. We see that there is well organised parking for thousands of cars north of Beavoir so join the queue and park up on the motor home spaces (100).

It costs €17.60 for 24 hours including free bus shuttle to the island over a fairly new bridge over the causeway. We take the bus with hundreds of others and enjoy the view but not the people. We walk up to the ramparts below the abbey and find it is another €10 each to go into the abbey, we decide not to, not because of the cost but because of the thousands of people.

We walk back to the camper rather than taking the shuttle bus and agree that we have been pleased to see Mont Saint Michael (on both the English and French side) but the over-crowding certainly spoils the experience, another place we would not return to!

It is mid-afternoon by the time we leave Mont Saint Michael, we head south to Pontorson, take the D90 to Trans la Foret and D83 to Combourg; then the D795 south and D20 to the small village of Tinténiac. We turn right off the road along a tow path road by the canal and come to a small Aire (12 places) overlooking the canal. It is blissfully quiet after the hundreds of people that we have encountered today. There are ten of us who stay overnight, but the U-shaped arrangement ensures that we all have plenty of space and a view of the canal. It is a quiet and sunny evening, about 24°C, we sit and relax and enjoy the peace of the evening as the day darkens to night.