Mont-Saint-Michel

 Finally I'm getting back to writing the blog for the last cruise, only 3 weeks after we got home. But as usual, real life took over and it is only now on a rainy day that I have the opportunity to focus on it.

Our first port stop of St. Malo was the closest point to the famous island abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. St. Malo itself is a medieval walled city which looks like it would also be a great place to walk through.

Sailing in to our anchor position.

St. Malo from the ship

Since Mont-Saint-Michel is on the bucket list for many people, the tours booked out quickly. We managed to get one that provided a tour of the tiny medieval town surrounding the base of the abbey, but didn't include a tour of the interior of the cathedral. The drive from St. Malo to the parking area took about 45 minutes and ran through some beautiful Normandy/Brittany countryside.

Once we arrived at the small town of Pontorson and left the bus in the immense parking lot, our guide led us to the lineup for the free shuttle bus that takes people out to the bridge to the island. More on that a little later. This lineup seemed ridiculously long, but she explained that it really did move rather well. She was, however, quite surprised at the number of people, and warned us that the town would be rather crowded once we got there. Apparently almost everyone in France is on holiday from mid-July to mid-August and when the weather is sunny they go to the beach. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast, at least it had been all morning, so they all chose to come to Mont-Saint-Michel instead.

Our first view of the famous island abbey.

We could have walked to the island, a distance of about 1.5 kilometres, but we would never have found the guide again for the walking tour, so we stayed with her and took the shuttle bus. Mont-Saint-Michel is an island at high tide, but one can walk across the sand at low tide....as long as one can avoid stepping into the quicksand, which is a true hazard. We visited at low tide, so there were little groups of people out on the sand, using stones to create patterns that would last until the tide came rushing in.

The island was well protected with thick stone walls, dangerous mud and a rushing tide with a swing of up to 14 metres (46 feet) which was fine during medieval times but doesn't work so well in modern times for visitor access. A bridge was built in 1879 to replace the causeway that was flooded over during high tide, but the bridge prevented the silt around the island from being washed away when the tide came in. In 2006 a project was established to replace the old bridge and create a hydraulic dam to use the power of the Couesnon River and the tides to flush out the silt at every high tide. This bridge and dam were opened in 2014 and have been operating since then.

From the shuttle you can see the bridge

On the bridge walking toward the island

Once we left the bus and headed into the town, we realized just how crowded it would be. The 'town' is really no more than a small village. No cars are allowed inside the walls, not that one would fit anywhere anyways. It was so busy that we already knew we didn't have much chance of finding anything for our 'lunch on our own'. We would only have about an hour and a half after our tour and every restaurant looked full up.

As much as she could, our guide led us through the main 'street' of town and explained the history and significance of the abbey. It has a rather interesting 'raison d'etre': apparently in the early 8th Century the Archangel Michael appeared to the Bishop Aubert of Avranches and told him to build a church on the rocky island. This happened more than once with the bishop refusing on the first two occasions. On the third, in 708, the Archangel Michael was a little more insistent, tapping him on the temple when making his demand. This time Aubert gave in and built the church. Legend has it that when Aubert passed away, there was a hole in the side of his head, attributed to the touch of the Archangel.

Our first glimpse of the town...

This is as close as we got to the abbey. The
people on the stairs are all lined up to buy tickets!

The view from the ramparts over the bay, the bridge
and the marshy land around it. The river and the dam
are just to the right of the bridge.

We weren't the only ones on the ramparts!

Here are a few more photos of the town and the abbey. From what I've read and watched, the only way you can really see the town is by staying overnight in one of the hotels - outside of prime vacation season, of course. The entrance gates are closed to tourists at 7:00 p.m. and only the 20-odd people who live there permanently and hotel guests and employees remain to stroll around and enjoy the history and medieval ambience.

We ended up walking all the way back to the Visitors Centre rather than waiting for a shuttle bus. Once we got there, after having had only a gelato to tide us over since breakfast, we bought some locally made potato chips and a small bag of cookies. Half a bag of chips each ended up being our lunch, so we were extra hungry for dinner when we got back to the ship!

It would be interesting to see Mont-Saint-Michel again in less crowded circumstances, but at least now we've checked it off the bucket list.