July 12, 2017

July 12, 2017

The World Heritage site of Mont Saint-Michel is a rocky island sitting in a bay on the border between Normandy and Brittany. Our hotel is at the end of the public road. We can see Mont Saint-Michel if we lean out our window. It is lit up at night. So around 11 pm, I head out to take a night photo. I really need to walk closer to get a photo but it is over mile away. A little too far to walk at night.

In the morning we take the shuttle across the new bridge to Mont Saint-Michel and hike up to the Abbey at the summit. We opt for the audio-guide tour. While impressive for being built so long ago and in such a remote location, the tour is uninteresting as most rooms are empty. The first monastery here was started over a thousand years ago in the 8th century and was expanded during the Middle Ages. The abbey has undergone much reconstruction since. A shiny gold statue of St. Michael now crowns the abbey church. With its mighty fortifications and remote tidal location, the island was nearly impregnable. Mont Saint-Michel held out for years against the English during the Hundred Years War.

It is overcast and it drizzled rain the whole time we were in the abbey. We stop for a warm lunch of soup and salad and a pint of the local cider hoping the weather clears up. Afterwards we walk the ramparts that protected the land-side of the island. Mont Saint-Michel is mobbed at mid-day, so we decide to walk back to the hotel. On the way the sun starts to break through and we get great weather and nicer photos.