With the long weekend approaching (C’est La Fête Nationale Lundi prochain) we decided that today was the best day to visit Mont Saint-Michel which is a little over an hour south of our ‘residence’. Timing is everything over the summer and since the Abbey is open until 1900 we timed our visit to be in the afternoon hoping that most of the other visitors would be gone. On top of that the bay around the Mont has some of the largest tidal changes in the world and we could see it go from low to high tide with low tide occurring near our arrival. And we were right on both account, when we arrived it looked like like someone had pulled the plug out of a tub, visitors were flooding out while not many were going in so we had a less crowded visit.

And the tides… The water was out several miles when we arrived, we watched it come in with amazing speed (a 40+ foot change from low to high tide) and Mont Saint-Michel was (mostly) an island by the time we left.  The causeway that was built to ease access to the location has ceased making it an island however the French government has undertaken a project to restore the area (Projet Mont-Saint-Michel) which includes replacing the causeway with a bridge restoring the bay to its more natural state. C’est bon!

Mont Saint-Michel has been the sight of a monastery for over 1000 years growing from a more modest start to the grand building visible on top of the island today. We have visited many religious sites over our travels but none have been as modest as this one as compared to the size. As with most places in Europe it seems this one was UP HILL. On top of that I am blessed with a family that acquiesced to my request to walk out to the island when we arrived. Thanks Kim and Syd! We certainly got our exercise today!

The Garmin continues taking us down the oddest roads to get us to our destination. Always correct, my hat is off to the people who recorded all the small rues (and I mean small) including their names.

More pictures can be found in the Mont Saint-Michel tab.