le Mont Saint Michel

Le Mont Saint Michel – Part 3

| Mairead
Next morning’s goodbye to Le Mont Saint Michel

At the end of the Abbey tour I walked back through the gift shop and through the turnstiles and down the steps and out through the town and onto the bus. When I got off the bus I was hungry.

My ticket to visit the Abbey

On the mainland side of the Mont Saint Michel bridge there are hotels and restaurants and gift shops and parking and a very expensive campsite. I decided to get a jambon roll and coffee and ponder my next step. If I started walking I could just make it back in time to the van for checkout. But was that what I really wanted to do?

No van parking

I was all alone, no one to consult (by phone) no one who expected me to return (Denis knew I would stay as long as I needed). So I sat down took out my journal and talked to myself about the lovely day I was having. As I wrote, people passed doing their thing. The busses passed going to the Mont, coming from the Mont. I ate my roll and drank my coffee.

Blue skies overhead

At some point I realised I could go back to the Mont again. Today. I could go there without a good reason. I could just go there for the pure joy of seeing something beautiful on an island out in the bay topped with a gold statue of Saint Michel (who by the way might possibly have been a little passive aggressive – when the bishop was long dead, someone discovered the skull of the bishop had a hole in it at the very spot the angel had placed his thumb…)

Looking up to the ceiling over the columns in the cloister you can see the spire of the Abbey

I got the bus again. I stood looking at the Mont for as long as I would have to take pictures but standing looking is different. Standing taking pictures means you have a big picture impression of what you’re taking a picture of and you don’t have to pay any detailed attention because the picture of the thing you’re standing in front of will be saved forever on your phone. Without a phone I pay more attention.

Photo from 2019, can you see the town houses tucked in over on the right of the island?

And with the very recent experience of the tour what I was looking at made more sense. I could see the church on top. I could see the town huddled to one side. I could see the opening to the big wheel where goods were winched up. I could see the buttresses supporting everything and I could see the ramparts going around the wall.

Gold plated statue of Sant Michel on top of the spire of the Abbey

That’s where I went next. And there were less people on the ramparts , in no time I was back at the entrance to the Abbey where I could buy another ticket and do another tour… I didn’t. I looked out to the bay and imagined all the pilgrims who walking the dangerous route across this bay. The fog, the quicksand and the tides rising at 1000m a second (possibly the guide said different numbers but her tone and her eyes suggested the tide rose shockingly fast!)

Postcards

When I came down from the ramparts I went to the post office and (with cash instead of phone) I bought stamps and postcards (which I couldn’t post in the very handy postbox on the mont because the addresses were on my dead phone, oh well). And after that I took the bus again and walked home.

Best day ever.

Le Mont Saint Michel – Part 2

| Mairead
On the path to Le Mont Saint Michel

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

View from the top towards the path

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.

View of the bay from the entrance to the ticket area

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.

Last picture before my phone died…

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.

Inside the abbey church

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?

The cloister at Le Mont Saint Michel

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.

View of a corner of the cloister

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.

Another view of the cloister

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.

A view through the pillars towards the abbey church

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.

People queuing to take pictures

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.

View through the cloister and out to the bay on the other side

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.

You guessed… the cloister

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.

The double row of columns is unusual for a cloister

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

Le Mont Saint Michel – Part 1

| Mairead
First view of the Mont – 30 minutes walk away

We had almost a week left on this journey when I started to consider if there was something I wanted to see or do in these last few days. A French To Do List, if you like. We were way over on the west side of Brittany at the time and the rain was falling, better weather expected.

Closer to the Mont – the river dividing Brittany and Normandy to the left

Even thought I’ve been many times I put Le Mont Saint Michel on top of the List. I’m not sure why it draws me in each time. I was very willing to be drawn in again. And that’s where we went on Wednesday morning last. It was another rainy day when we arrived, the sky fully grey with added purple clouds. Rainstorms forecast.

Free bus every 8 minutes early in the morning (frequency increases during the day) Do you notice the barrier behind? Only the busses, delivery trucks and official vehicles allowed… but you can walk.

There’s a really good camper stop 30 minutes walk to the Mont where we stayed. We had enough water, electricity and internet to spend the day. You pay for 24 hours in advance and we had until 12.20pm Thursday until we had to pay for 24 hours more or checkout. Maybe I wouldn’t get a chance to visit today but possibly in the morning?

View after exiting the bus

The rain eased towards evening and we donned rain coats and rain trousers and walked into the village of Beauvoir. One of the other things on my French List was Moules and frites (Mussels and chips) and that’s what I ordered.

Modules et frites

Checking the forecast again before bed I realised the following day was to be dry and sunny. I would head off early to the Mont and be back by checkout time. The Mont is not on Denis’ French List so he was happy to stay behind and work.

Deliveries inside the town require narrow vehicles

The Mont is an island and when we visited almost thirty years ago you could only get onto the island at low tide. Now, there’s a bridge and a bus to carry you along the bridge.

This way to the top

At 8.30am I set out walking on the cycle/walk path behind the camper stop. Almost immediately you get a view of the Mont in the distance and it’s hard to describe what seeing it feels like. For me it’s so pretty, a neat triangle with an angel on top. Like a cake, maybe. Or a pyramid. I don’t think if I will ever grow tired of visiting it.

First set of steps before entrance to Abbey

For some reason in order to give myself permission to visit the Mont again I had told myself I would take a tour of the Abbey on top. I had never done that so that was a valid reason to waste time going to an island I’d been to many times before. Even as I write this it occurs to me the strangeness of that thinking. Anyway there I was off to do a tour, to learn something new to not waste my time.

Second set of steps before entrance

The bus, when I arrived, was full of other people and most seemed to be visiting for the first time as there were gasps and smiles as we got closer. I got out and took some photos from the bridge. There’s a post office just inside the gates, good place to buy and stamps and post cards! It would open at 10am, I’d sort that out on the way back.

View from the third set of steps before the entrance

The buildings on top of the Mont are a Benedictine Abbey and to reach them you have to walk through the increasingly steep street of shops and restaurants until you arrive at the first set of steps. I wish I had counted the steps, hundreds of steps to the door at the top is not an exaggeration.

Fourth set of steps leading to the entrance…

I had purchase a ticket and a tour which would start at 10.15am, in thirty minutes. Meaning I had time to wander through the site. I took photos and read plaques and generally had a lovely time. And then I noticed something very scary…

Green dots to Le Mont Saint Michel