June 2nd: Mont Saint Michel

We’re on a family outing to Mont Saint Michel today, and it’s cool with rain and low cloud.

The abbey is magnificent, with its’ multitude of buildings that sit atop the island of Mont St. Michel. They mainly date between the 12th and 16th centuries although the first record of a religious building was of an oratory in the 8th century, built by Aubert, Bishop of nearby Avranches, following a vision he had of the Archangel Michael. St. Michael gave Aubert a straight choice- found either an abbey, or M & S Stores.

Today a 2k causeway links the island, but in the Middle Ages it was truly an island except at low tide. The tide here goes out as much as 15k, the farthest in the world, and comes in very rapidly, reputedly (and exaggeratedly) at the speed of galloping horses. You can see the extent of the bay in the photo and how far away the tide line is. Pilgrims who visited the abbey had to judge it just right or get caught in the tide or quicksand. There were many tragedies.

The massive construction, of which the above picture shows but a small part, is all stone blocks. These were quarried from the nearby Chausey Islands or Brittany, and brought by boat or across the sand by dodging the tides, and then hauled up to the top of this precipitous rock. That’s before building could begin! It was an amazing achievement, and the construction work is of a quality comparable with the great cathedrals of Europe. The cloisters below show the harmony of the design.

The next two pictures are just two examples of beautiful and atmospheric parts of the abbey.


But we’re not going into raptures about everything. Leading up to the abbey is the main street, full of tourist shops, restaurants and hotels. This is serious rip-off territory. It’s interesting how these places like to produce a character from the past with some kind of provenance so as to justify premium prices. In this case they’ve raked up a Mère Poulard, her on the hanging sign on the left in the photo. Mère Poulard, we are told, produced the most delicious omelettes here over 100 years ago, so you can sample its like in numerous restaurants, or buy MP cookbooks, cooking pans, biscuits, aprons, mugs, plaster of Paris figures etc.

Anyway, as the weather was pretty awful, a consolation was needed and a round of ice creams was thought to precisely fit the bill. However, the setting does make it look like the prisoners’ last request (we were sheltering)!