mont saint-michel

until about a month ago, i had never even heard of mont saint-michel. now, i don't think i'll ever forget it. it is an incredible rocky island off the coast of northern france, about four hours from paris. in the 6th and 7th centuries, it was a "strategic point holding fortifications" and in the 8th century became the home of the saint-michel monastery. we took a few hours to wander through the monastery, which reminded me of a way cooler version of this in san jose. mostly because you could tell the monastery was continually being added upon. each room, it seemed, was different than the last. from the walls to the ceilings and floors {which, incidentally, made for great feet shots}, every square inch of this place was so unique. the location lends itself to an entirely new concept of beauty. it was truly jaw dropping.

we drove to mont saint-michel from paris, in our newly rented mercedes-benz vito. the boys spent an entire morning traveling to the airport to pick up the rental and then driving it back to our paris hotel. while at the rental counter, the employee asked the boys if they would like an upgrade for free. the employee said "vito" but in her french accent, it sounded like v2. ryan looked up a v2 on his blackberry and it looked like a great size {about the size of a rav 4, he said}. but no, she said vito and a vito we got. an enormous van. seriously a mini bus. which turned out great to store our luggage and would have been great had we had four other friends joining us...but not so great for gas. we survived. barely. there are no lines to designate lanes in the roundabouts. crazy!  but we had a great time traveling across france, mad libs in tow. i've never seen lindsey laugh so hard.