Mont St Michel to the Loire Valley

Leaving Normandy, we drove further North to Mont St Michel, the famous island abbey rising from an uninhabted, tidal swamp. Given the reviews of hot, sweaty, partially obese throngs of tourists, I viewed the excursion as a "must do," but expected little. Oh how wrong I was!

TripAdvisor and Ricky Stevey were right ... Mont St Michel is crowded and cheaply commercial at times, but if you arrive after peak visiting hours, get some exercise by actually walking from the parking lot, down the road to the island, and up the stairs to the Abbey, the whole experience is truly special. Granted I'm not religious, or even Catholic, but the whole aura of the place permeated your visit. If there is one negative, the famous salt-water lamb, for which Mont St Michel is renowned, tastes as you might expect, normal lamb we get at BJs.

The following morning, we took to the road heading southward through the Loire Valley to a small town 6km outside of Ambois. Though we have yet to visit the Chateau's, the dinner we had last night was sublime:
-locally sourced white asparagus with olive tapenade
-smoked swordfish salad -leeks with smoked ham and hard boiled egg
-monkfish with pork trotters (a revelation for all things pig)
-red mullet with vegetables raised in the restaraunt garden
-a selection of cheeses ranging from funky to what the funk