Le Mont Saint-Michel

We have been anticipating our trip to le Mont Saint-Michel for months. I don’t know if it is because we are tired of the city and the noise or just to see something new and different. However, as much preparation for le Mont that we made could not describe the absolute wonder and magic of this medieval abbey.

We got to ride France’s high-speed train this time. It’s called the TGV (don’t ask me what that stands for!) We zipped right over to a city called Rennes in about two hours and then got on a bus which drove for an hour over to Mont Saint-Michel.

People used to have to time their arrivals with the tide. At high tide, the Mont (as we call it) would be completely surrounded by water. There are many stories that go way back to the 700’s, of people walking and getting caught by the tides and drowning. At low tide, there is mud everywhere, along with some grasses or something, and there are stories of people walking out in the mud and getting trapped in quicksand. So there is certainly a sense of danger associated with the island. These days, they have built a roadway out to the island and so there is always access. The island is about one mile out from the shore. On shore there is a town with lots of hotels and restaurants to capture the tourists headed out to the Mont.

As soon as we arrived we headed for our hotel which we booked online. The hotel we chose is actually in Mont Saint-Michel, not across the causeway. We did that for the very specific reason of being on the Mont.

Within seconds we knew we had a problem when the receptionist at the hotel said she couldn’t find our reservation. After much searching we found the booking online but she never received the booking. All rooms on the Mont were sold out. She found us a room back on the mainland and dejected, we left the hotel to do some exploring before we left the Mont for the night.

As we headed out to find something to eat, we saw another hotel and I suggested to Jim he go in and see if they had any rooms. They did and we took it! Then we were led to our room, which sits up high on the actual Mont, through winding, narrow streets, up steep stairs, around corners, under archways until we finally came to our room! It was so convoluted that Jim took pictures of the path so we could find our way back!

Then we began our discovery of this magical place. If I were to leave Europe today, after seeing and being here, I would feel that this adventure had been worthwhile.

Time stands still for this area. If you can ignore the crowds, ignore the markets selling their goods and see Mont Saint-Michel for the place that it is, you can’t help but fall in love with it. There is an overwhelming feeling of medieval-ness! The Abbey (church) sits way, way, way up high and is then surrounded with the village made up of narrow passageways, lots of stairs, archways, and walls. It very much looks like a castle. You feel like you are in the castle. You feel very, very medieval!


Mont Saint-Michel was founded in 708 AD and from its beginnings was a great pilgrimage center. The church was built in the 11th century. Additions to the Mont were added every century for a few centuries up until the 18th century. Military fortifications were added to protect the abbey in times of war. There is only a single street that runs from the main gate up a short ways (lined with shops and restaurants now). Then there are steep pathways and stairways that go around the walls of the island and up to the abbey at the top. It is just simply incredible!

We hadn’t eaten lunch and noticed that many stores closed by 6:30 and so we decided to have the most famous dish associated with the Mont—an omelet! I don’t know what the recipe is, but there is a tradition of beating the eggs into frothy foam and then cooking it over an open flame. When it is served it is still a little frothy, so we just ate it and didn’t think about it very much! It was pretty good and we were starving anyway, so we were satisfied.

We explored around town, but didn’t go to the abbey. We are saving it for the morning because the tourists won’t be here yet (an advantage to staying on the Mont). About 7pm we figured we better get some dinner before everything closed down. There was a sign posted in town that high tide would be at 7pm and so people needed to have there cars out of the parking lot by then. Up until then, the area surrounding the Mont just looked like a huge mud bog with channels that had flowing water out to sea. We kept watching the water—no high tide yet. We finished dinner and decided to walk out on the roadway to look back at the Mont all lit up at night. It too, was absolutely beautiful. We were taking a lot of pictures and were walking back when we started hearing the sound of waves. We looked over the other side of the road and the ocean is rushing back in so fast that it looks like a river. We stood there and watched the water advance until it covered the parking lot we had just walked through! Incredible! Unfortunately the tide came in around 8:00 P.M. and it was too dark for pictures.

The only drawback this place has is the mosquitoes. They are everywhere! It made for a very quick dinner as they were inside the restaurant also.

Until tomorrow………………………
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