We finally had an opportunity to visit Mont-Saint-Michel (had been on both of our places to see lists for a while!). We decided to stay at one of the few hotels on the island because I had read it’s very peaceful once all the day trippers leave in the evening (the island has less than 30 permanent residents plus a handful of hotels). There are a series of car parks on the mainland and one of them is set aside for the hotels. Because of the narrow roads and stairways, we packed overnight backpacks and left our suitcases in the trunk of our rental car.
If you’re not familiar with Mont-Saint Michel, (https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/unmissable-sites/the-mont-saint-michel/; https://visit-mont-saint-michel.com/), it’s a tidal island about 1 km off the coast of northwestern France. It’s in Normandy (Normadie) but right at the edge of Brittany (Bretagne). The initial monastery was built in the 8th century, after a local bishop had a dream where the Archangel Michael told him to build here. The current abbey building started in the 10th century with several additions over the next couple of centuries. It was declared a historic monument and restored in the late 19th century (you can read a more detailed history here: https://www.abbaye-mont-saint-michel.fr/en/discover/history-of-the-monument).
The Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel has some of the largest tidal fluctuations in continental Europe. It was originally an island only reachable at low tide. Eventually the causeway that was only accessible at low tide was converted to a raised causeway in 1879. Then in 2006, a €200 million project was started to built a hydraulic dam to remove silt and make Mont-Saint-Michel and island again. In 2014, a new bridge opened to provide access to the island. There is a car park about 2.5 km away and a free shuttle service brings you to the island (or you can go on foot). The new bridge allowed water to freely flow under it and around the island, which also improved the efficiency of the hydraulic dam. The bridge itself cost around €209 million to build.
At low tide, you can walk out into the surrounding dry bay/mudflat (although there are lots of warnings not to venture out alone if you don’t know the tides well). This sign was in a public bathroom just as you walk into the town from the bridge – I guess it was happening often enough to warrant a sign!
Once you enter the island from the main road/bridge where the shuttle drops you off, you are right on this main central street. Our hotel was on this street along with a lot of shops and restaurants (and a tourist information shop).
We stayed at the Hotel Auberge Saint Pierre (https://www.auberge-saint-pierre.fr/fr/?sa=X&utm_source=My%20Business&ved=0CI4DEMiuA2oXChMI-JawqvHLlQMVAAAAAB0AAAAAEG4).
We went to our hotel and dropped our overnight bags then headed up to the abbey. You typically need timed entry tickets but I had been keeping an eye on it and they didn’t seem to be selling out. As I’ve mentioned before – this is a big advantage of off-season travel! It’s not as crowded which allows for a more enjoyable experience and also more flexibility because you don’t have to buy tickets so far in advance. We bought our tickets at the abbey once we got there. In peak season you definitely want to get those in advance. Tickets are €13 October – March and €16 April – September and it took us about 2 1/2 hours to go through the whole abbey at a pretty leisurely pace (always make sure to double check you are on the official sites when buying tickets – in this case you can tell from the “.fr” ending on the site: https://www.abbaye-mont-saint-michel.fr/).
As you can see from the pictures we got coming to the island, the abbey sits at the top. It isn’t the easiest walk up but it wasn’t too bad either. And you get some great views from up there – the first photo is looking back at the bridge to the island (you can tell it is low tide too). The 2nd picture was a cool model of the island and the abbey.
There was also a great view of the bay from the cloister. I always love the cloisters in these old churches. I imagine it was always a very peaceful place.
We did get the tablet-guided tour – it’s basically an audio guide on an iPad-type device – they’re pretty cool because you can hold up the tablet and see what rooms looked like in the past and read tidbits of info as well as listen to audio. We realized as we went through that very few people had them but we found them helpful. They’re €6 per tablet (https://www.abbaye-mont-saint-michel.fr/en/visit/practical-information) – be aware if you opt to do this, you do have to leave your ID with them (we left our passports) as collateral.
This huge tread-wheel was built in 1820 and used to haul goods and supplies up to the top – powered by 6 workers/prisoners (the abbey was used as a prison starting in 1791; https://fiveminutehistory.com/posts/10-fascinating-facts-about-mont-saint-michel-the-medieval-city-on-a-rock/#google_vignette). It’s literally a human hamster wheel.
If you look closely at the picture above from the bridge, you can see this tread way from below (also check out this video – he does a great job of quickly explaining the difficulty of getting goods and supplies to the top of this island: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWrnxT1CtG0/)
After we finished our tour we made our way back down to check into our room. On the way down, I thought the shadow of the abbey onto the mudflat was pretty cool!
Once we got checked in, we headed back out to explore the ramparts/walls. While it’s a religious pilgrimage site, it was also a well-fortified island that the English tried (and failed) to capture more than once. We could actually leave our hotel room and go straight out onto the walls from a hallway without having to go out the main hotel entrance – which was a very cool aspect of the hotel!
We found a restaurant where we could sit right inside the walls and enjoy a great view with dinner. I got a galette with goat cheese that was sooo good! Chris got moules frites with cream sauce. A galette is a savory buckwheat crepe that originated in the Brittany region of France (I actually first tried it in the Loire Valley last year – a four-cheese religious experience!).
After dinner we kept walking around the ramparts a bit then settled into a good spot to watch the tide come in and watch sunset. I got some pretty cool timelapses of the tides too.
The island after dark was so cool too – all lit up and very peaceful.
When we woke up the next morning, we headed out to the ramparts again. It was still very peaceful – the day trippers hadn’t made their way in yet.
Compare these low tide photos to the ones above from high tide. It was a pretty remarkable difference!
We checked out of our hotel and made our off the island to our car to head into Brittany. This was a very cool stop and I would highly recommend it – and would absolutely recommend spending the night on the island!
