'We had lots of fun on the beaches'

Family time on the Normandy beaches

My card starts with 'Isn't it spectacular!'

I was very taken with Mont St Michel, it left an impression on me, the experience of the tide rising through the sand is remarkable, the steep narrow roads of the medieval village and the imposing cathedral.

And as written by de Maupassant.....


Legend of Mont St. Michel

by  Guy de Maupassant 
(1850-1893)

Translators: Albert M.C. McMaster, A.E. Henderson, Mme. Quesada, & others.

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I had first seen it from Cancale, this fairy castle in the sea. I got an indistinct impression of it as of a gray shadow outlined against the misty sky. I saw it again from Avranches at sunset. The immense stretch of sand was red, the horizon was red, the whole boundless bay was red. The rocky castle rising out there in the distance like a weird, seignorial residence, like a dream palace, strange and beautiful-this alone remained black in the crimson light of the dying day.

The following morning at dawn I went toward it across the sands, my eyes fastened on this, gigantic jewel, as big as a mountain, cut like a cameo, and as dainty as lace. The nearer I approached the greater my admiration grew, for nothing in the world could be more wonderful or more perfect.

Looking at the post stamp from the rather souless Marly-le Roi Grandes Terres, brings back so many memories, having a coffee, going to the Post Office for in and outgoing mail and those horses, Les Chevaux de Marly, we would walk past these monumental horse statues in the park near the house.