Today, Sunday 5 January, Eric and I took a guided tour out to Le Mont-Saint-Michel. Our tour guide picked us up in Caen at 8:45 and we started the drive out to the coast. When you see Mont-Saint-Michel for the first time, it just springs up out of nowhere and is magical. The first church on site was built around 708 and was added to until an entire town was built on the rock and it became a historic monument in 1874. There are hotels, restaurants, shops, homes that people live in, a mayor (who also lives on site) all crammed onto this rock/island. The area around is interesting, during high tide the mont is on an island, during low tide there is a road that can be used to access the site. The water is from both the English channel and a river, so the dirt becomes quicksand like and can be quite dangerous to walk on.
Since today was the first Sunday of the month, there were no admission fees to enter and we were able to observe part of the weekly service. There are still monks and nuns that live at the abbey all year long and people are allowed to stay with them if you are willing to live in their simplistic ways (no electronics, regular schedule of sleeping/eating/praying/working). There are no assisted services on the mont, so in order to visit people have to be able to walk up the cobblestone street and climb the stairs (which I expected there to be more of, so I was happy with the amount of walking we did today).
The abbey and town are beautiful and what I imagine castles in fairy tales to look like.
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| View of Mont-Saint-Michel from the farm town out front |
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| Line made by the two types of water mixing during high tide |
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| More destruction from the Revolution time |
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| The abbey and parts of town were built right into the rock and carved around stone instead of making it flat and enclosed |
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| A picture I borrowed from inside the abbey as it was not dark enough to be lit during our visit |
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| Archangel Michael, who told Aubert (Bishop of Avranches) to build a church on a mountain |
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| There is still a post office on the mont, but was closed as today was Sunday |
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