So I find that my ability to say "yes" to spontaneity has much improved since my arrival in France.  There is no longer a hesitation in my response nor further reflection about how much this particular outing is going to cost me.  I simply say "yes, why not?" knowing that whatever proposed adventure I just stumbled upon would be exactly what I needed and turn out to be one of the best days of life.

As I had mentioned in my last blogpost, my friend Benoît offered to take me along for the day and accompany him while he made his required sales for his cookie company.  Knowing that any opportunity to get out of the house, speak French, and explore other towns in France would be much better than staying in rainy Nantes by myself waiting for Benoît and the rest of my friends to finish their work day, I immediately agreed to tag along.  On Tuesday morning, we drove through Rennes,

and while Benoît went off to do some sales, I did some shopping and ended up with a new pair of earrings :)  After business was finished in Rennes, we drove another hour to our final destination, Le Mont Saint Michel.  Benoît was nice enought to let me use his Blackberry phone to take some pictures since my broken camera is currently making the long voyage to the United States to be repared.  

Above is a picture taken from the prison itself--not bad of a view for dangerous criminal.

Here, is a picture of one of the prison walls surrounded by the infamous quicksand.  The sea arrived at high-tied around 3:30pm that day, but varies according to the season.  So for all of the tourists (and there were thousands that day) who had wanted to take a walk along the sand, but arrived during high-tied were extremely disappointed.

Mount Saint Michel off in the distance.

After such a wonderful and enriching visit (and it really was, I am not trying to be corny or anything lol), my host sister, Louise-Marie, invited me over for dinner that evening.  Since her parents left for their vacation house right after the wedding festivities on Sunday afternoon and plan to stay there until the end of August (must be nice to be granted 5 weeks of manditory vacation), she was more than willing to invite me and a few of her friends, whom I had already met, to dinner.  It was so nice to see and talk with her again!

--Side note:  I apologized to Benoit for leaving him alone that evening, but he didn't seem to mind and said that he was looking forward to drink a beer or two in the tub and reading, lol.