Day 299, Mont Saint Michel, Normandy, France
We have been to this UNESCO World Heritage Site before, but it’s stunning and worth the repeat visit. Mont Saint-Michel is a surreal, medieval looking village, like a setting from the Game of Thrones. This island commune, located 600 metres from land, still has a working abbey and monastery within its walls, population 40. Mont Saint-Michel is a tidal island, meaning when the tide is high it is surrounded by water, an island rising from the sea. When the tide is low it’s perched above the rivers running through the mud plains. There is no place quite like it.
When we were last here, we drove our car up to the edge or a short bridge that led to the walled-in town. Now it’s a different ballgame. You drive much further out to a tourist village, take in a free shuttle which drops you off on a fancy boardwalk leading to the town.
Once inside the walls you wind up a short street of restaurants and shops to the monastery’s entrance. Last time we were here, Cali was a baby. I remember how we switched off carrying her up the steep ramps and endless flights of stone stairways.
The monastery is an impressive architectural marvel, since many floors had to be built up around the dome of the rock in order to create a platform big enough and strong enough to hold the cathedral that’s perched on top. The sanctuary isn’t as ornate as Chartres, which we saw yesterday, but has more of a stoic, understated presence. The stained glass windows are not colorful but glow in subtle beiges and pale yellows. They are still beautiful when the light shines through them.
