Tides in Normandy

Even though we are now in Paris, I have to write a post about the tides in Normandy.  They call them the "strongest tides in Europe," and a google search revealed that they come in at the speed of 1 meter/second, and are "as fast as a galloping horse."  We experienced this the first time we went to the plage (french for beach) in Granville.  We arrived at the beach at low tide, about 4 pm, and took a walk a few hundred yards out to the edge of the surf where Irie played briefly in the small waves and Lisa did a hula (ka uluwehe o ke kai).  As you'll notice from the linked pictures, when she started her dance she was on sand, and 3 minutes later the water was around her ankles.  We decided we had to get back and ended up having to wade through an area of water that was up to our waists.  Once safely ensconced back on the plage we were able to watch the water rise for the next few hours as it crawled up the beach, waves getting bigger, and eventually the pool disappeared.  We left for dinner and came back for the entertainment (there was a summer festival going on) and the waves were crashing against the ramparts.  What a trip!

Since the weather had finally improved, we went back to the beach the next day to watch it happen all over again after visiting a corn field maze in the morning.  They have been doing a different maze at this sight since 2002 and this year it is in the shape of Mont St. Michel in honor of it's founding 1300 years ago.  The maze has quiz questions on the Mont to help us find our way (en francaise) and it still took some backtracking and teamwork - it was a lot of fun!  Later that night we took a drive to watch the tides rise around Mont St. Michel which we had visited during the day (low tide) earlier in the week.  The tides really are an amazing sight. Granville plage and cornfield maze pics