We had to wait for the rain to stop before we finally got to see the most visited tourist attraction in Normandy, and one of the top ten most visited places in France. It took us just over an hour and a half to drive to this UNESCO-Heritage-Listed site from our house sit, and we had no idea how we were going to get to the island. I had read that it was dangerous to get across and you should book a guided tour.

Obviously, the information I was reading was well and truely out of date, because in 2014 a new bridge was opened to allow (relatively) safe access to the town and its abbey.

This smaller photo on the left shows the bridge and one of the free shuttle buses that brings the hundreds of thousands of visitors to this site.

One of the very special features of this island is the fact that at low tide, the island and abbey are cut off from the mainland (well they were before the bridge was built!). The tides can vary hugely, up to 14 metres from low to high tide, and in 2015, the new bridge was actually cut off by a king tide when it became completely submerged.

It was low tide, and going out when we arrived at Mont-Saint-Michel, and we spotted quite a number of school groups there. The photo on the right shows a group of preschoolers enjoying getting their toes wet and muddy on the mud flats.

Mick was keen to walk through the town to take a look at the low tide from the other side.

But I was more interested in the cute little streets that weaved their way around, all heading to the highest point on the island where the abbey stood. The abbey was listed as an historic monument in 1862, and is a site of a Catholic pilgrimage.

As we walked up these streets, we took in all the delicious and tempting smells from the many restaurants. These restaurants must be the most successful anywhere in the world because millions of people visit the site each year and once you are there, you need to be fed. There were also lots of gift shops and even some museums showing how the abbey was used as a prison and a dungeon for many years following the French Revolution.

The abbey certainly was an impressive structure, and as we continued to climb more steeply, we had to stop to catch our breath a few times, along with many other ‘oldies’.

Mick decided he did not need to see inside the abbey, so I headed up a little higher to see what was on show.

This is a photo I took of a poster board that shows one of the courtyards inside the abbey.

I tried to get Mick’s attention while I was up there but he was too interested in chatting to the dog.

 Can you spot him??

Everywhere we walked, there was something interesting to look at.

 

After we had lunch at one of the restaurants, we headed back to line up for the free shuttle that would take us the 2.5km back to the carpark.  While the bus was free, the parking cost us €14, which we thought was a pretty good deal. Even with hundreds of people waiting for the bus, the longest we had to wait was on our return journey

As I mentioned before, Mick really wants to spend some time in Brittany before we finish our year in France, and today he was so close to spending ‘some’ time there. At one time the island was considered part of Brittany, but he said that didn’t count!.