Mont St. Michele

Incredible, amazing, majestic--all took on a new meaning when we caught sight of Mont St. Michel in the afternoon sun. We could begin to see it from about 20 miles away, and it kept getting bigger as we got closer. Then we were there, and we could see the details of the city walls, the houses at the base of the abbey, and the very tall and stately abbey, itself. On our tour of the abbey, we learned that it was begun in the 700’s as a pilgrimage site by the Bishop of Avranches and was frequented by French royalty which made it even more popular with successive church hierarchy and those with money to spare who continued to add to it through the ages. This made it into more than a church but also into a fortress which sits on a very small island on the northwest coast of France. The tides measure up to 50 feet, and at low tide, the water recedes about 5 miles which allows visitors to walk out onto the mud flats if they dare. We kept seeing warning signs of quicksand (which convinced me that I wasn’t going to do it) and a fast tidal bore that is said to move at the speed of a galloping horse (a little hyperbole, I think). We had reserved a room on the island inside the walls and were so glad we did. After dinner, we walked around the island on the ramparts of the fortress, and then we walked out onto the manmade causeway that connects it with the mainland. We both turned at the same time to view it in floodlight and drew a deep breath; it was magic! The lights gave it a heavenly glow, and the very upper part of the abbey took on a shiny purple hue. St. Michel, bathed in gold, sat on a very tall spire at the top. Many photos later, we tore ourselves away from the vision and scuttled around the darkened town, imagining all sorts of scenarios from Roman times or the Dark Ages. Exhausted, we finally crossed over the drawbridge into the village and went to bed hoping that some fair maiden would spin straw into gold for us so we could pay our hotel bill!