Yes, something very scary… My phone was almost out of battery (5%)

I couldn’t believed it. Why had I not taken the time last night to charge it? How had I forgotten to bring the extra charger? What an idiot? Hmm…I use my phone for taking pictures, for looking up information, for finding my way, for paying for food, museums, stamps! For light when it’s dark. I was in a dark room under the abbey when I realised my phone would soon die. I sent a text to Denis to tell him and that was it, the screen went black. No more phone.

Should I go back to the van and charge it? Or do the tour? I walked on trying to decide what to do next and found myself in the gift shop. In my walking around taking pictures I had gone through the whole route. I hadn’t meant to do that, now how do I get back to the tour? My ticket was only for a one time entry. I suppose this was a sign I should go back. I would be there in time for check out and forget about this nonsense of visiting the Mont again.

Yes it was a sign alright. But instead of going through the gift shop I took the opposite door back into the ticket hall. There was a big group of schools children queuing for headphones. I found my way through them and back to the entrance of the abbey.

There was a queue at the ticket validation point where a young woman was scanning tickets. She’d already scanned my ticket the first time. What would I do if her scanner beeped when she scanned it again?

It didn’t beep. I was back climbing the stone steps up to the abbey church. And everything had changed. I had just been here but now I was here without a phone… No photos. No checking historic facts. No looking up the weather. No taking notes to share with you later. Just being here, taking only what I can remember.

I hadn’t found the meeting point for the 10.15am English guided tour – and I had no phone to find it now… Yet, here I was walking towards a woman who had welcomed us as we puffed up the fourth set of steps on the outside.

She was now the English speaking guide. I was in the right place at the right time. Another sign, maybe? And the tour began. I listened. I took no photos… I took no notes… When she said it was a Benedictine Abbey I made up a story in my head about Benny the Monk to remember and distinguish between the other monk orders it might have been.

So here’s what I remembered… A bishop had a dream that Saint Michel came and told him to build an abbey for pilgrims on the Mont Tomb (I think that’s the original name of the island. It was already a pilgrimage route where you came to pray for your dead). The bishop (who’s name I can remember…) ignored the first dream and also the second dream but by the third dream Saint Michel got a little aggressive. When placing his thumb on the bishop’s forehead, he left a dent. After that the bishop began the work of fundraising and engaging builders.

What I hadn’t understood (and I’m still not sure about) is what is required to build an abbey that won’t fall down. Where its chapels and dormitories and refectories for monks and pilgrims are piled on top of each other and have to fit on a small island, while leaving the town intact.

The guide did a great job of describing where we stood in each room, what was above or below us, what needed to be built first to support the rest. Of course I can’t remember those details. I love maps (if they weren’t copyright protected I’d be including a real map with each of my posts) and as I was listening I was trying to imagine a map of this island – side on, not from above like road maps. If I could cut a slice off and look into where we stood and could see what was above and below.

The guide said lots more that I now forget but I had a great time just listening, not taking photos, not taking notes. My favourite “room” of the abbey was near the top – the cloister. A square of grass (by the way far above the ground where grass normally grows…) open to the sky and surrounded on each side by half pillar corrridors where the monks walked, prayed and meditated.

(Most of my pictures were of the cloisters and because my phone died and there’s no other photos, you’re seeing them all.)