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We were excited today as we were going to visit the Barrage du Couesnon, a clever bit of engineering which stops the tidal estuary of the river Couesnon from silting up. The barrage (shown above) has eight gates rather like those on the Thames barrier but these move twice a day. The idea is that when the tide is coming in they remain closed, 10 minutes before high tide they drop a little to allow the incoming tide to rush over the gates to fill the river but leaving the silt behind. The gates then close again and, as the tide goes out, they slowly open to release river water into the sea and to scrub the silt away.
How exciting is that? Even better we were there just before high tide so what happens? Nothing, perhaps the gates don't work at lunchtime on a Friday so instead we had to visit that pointy building in the background.

Mont Saint Michel is one of the must see sights of Brittany (actually it is just in Normandy) and very impressive it is too.

Many French tourist sights are awful, too crowded and badly managed so I was expecting a grumpy day but it was great. The first advantage is that the Abbey is right at the top of the hill, I did not count the steps but two adventurous travellers such as ourselves were puffed out by the time we got to the entrance. Fatties, flip flop wearers and those with sticks did not make it. The next positive it only cost 13€ each despite no discount for oldies and as you can see in the photograph it was not over run (most areas had visitors but it was fine).

So despite the barrage disappointment it was a grand day out.

The other excitement of the day was watching streams of couples not being served lunch! About a mile away from the Mont is a new village with shops, restaurants, a camp site, coach, cows and car park. All well organised and smart. They even have free shuttle buses to take you to and from the main site.

So when we spotted the restaurant in the picture with a nice chalk board outside describing the dishes of the day, all at a reasonable price we went in to be told "we only serve group bookings so go elsewhere!" So why the enticing notice?

We established ourselves in the restaurant across the road and watched a stream of couples getting the same brush off. There must have been a couple every five minutes during the two hours we were watching, another bit of excitement on our holiday, I bet you can't wait until tomorrows installment.