Mont Saint Michel-Fairy tales do come true!

On the northern coast of France there is a place that rises up out of the sea  and the mist on a granite rock.                    

                                     It's called Mont Saint Michel.............

It  is said to date back to 708 A.D. when Aubert, Bishop of Avranches built a sanctuary on Mont-Tombe to honor the Archangel Michael.  The Mont is actually an islet about one kilometer in circumference.  It is connected to the mainland by a natural thin natural land bridge which before modernization, was covered during high tide and revealed at low tide , giving the mont it's mystical quality. During high tide it used to be inaccessible except by boat.  During low tide, it was surrounded by treacherous stretches of everchanging areas of quicksand.  The tides here are the fastest moving in all of Europe. The tide actually comes in at 1 meter per minute.  Over the centuries, it became an impregnable fortress, with a bustling medieval village within the stout, defendable walls and crowned with a soaring gothic style abbey with a spire topped by Archangel Michael. 

We were all completely mesmerized with the first sight of it rising up over the fields as we drove closer and closer.  It just doesn't look like it could even be real.  We parked the car in one of the lots below the causeway (which was built in the 1800's and makes the island always accessible).   We arrived about 5:00 pm and the wind was really strong and it looked like rain was coming.  As we walked up to the gate and through the entrance, Missy and I both commented that "this is like Disneyland...only REAL!!"   It was very crowded and the narrow street was full of touristy shops and cute restaurants.  The very narrow cobblestone street curves up and up and around the hill and eventually lead up to the abbey.

  It's a pretty good climb.  I read in one of my books that it is over 900 steps up to the abbey.  It was so worth it. By the time we reached the top and paid to tour the abbey,  it was raining and the crowds were leaving.  We really enjoyed being able to wander through and explore the rooms, the cloister and the terraces of the abbey.  It was beautiful up there! (I am going to put lots of pictures in here and keep them small.  Remember you can click on any picture to make it bigger.)

Mike inside a fireplace.

This big wheel was used to pull the sled that T.J.  is standing by up a vertical track on the outside walls.

After that we had to decide whether to go back to the mainland and find a hotel or see if we could afford to stay at the hotel right there on Mont St. Michel.  We were so surprised to find they had a few rooms left.  They had two rooms with a double bed in each and a room with two twins and the cost was not a whole lot more than our last two night in the "budget hotels", so we were all thrilled at the idea of staying in a castle for the night.  

Mike standing in front of our hotel building

This is the walkway up to our rooms.  Our room is the white window at the top of the grey roof, right below the abbey.

The best part of it all was that most of the tourists leave and you almost have the whole island to yourself!   We had to move the car up to the special parking area for hotel guests up on the causeway because the lower parking lots get covered by the tide.  

Then we found a cute restaurant and ate dinner. 

I had a wonderful mushroom salad and some pizza. 


 Then we wandered all around and explored the many little streets and paths away from the main one.  It's a maze of steps and cobblestone paths winding all different directions.  It was really magical with the mist, the clouds, the tide rolling in to surround us almost completely with water.  What a fairy tale night....I will treasure the memories!

The next morning, Mike and I got up early and walked around the island one more time. It was almost completely deserted.  

Then we went back to meet the others and head out and found that Missy had gone out for a run earlier in the morning along the causeway.  She tripped and fell down hard and had two deep gashes in her knee from falling on a sharp boulder.  I could see it needed several stitches. Her hubby, Mike, went to find bandages and directions to a clinic and came back with two handsome french paramedics.  Missy started feeling better right away (just kidding)  They did say she needed a doctor and wanted to take her in the ambulance, but she decided to just have them clean it , bandage it and then head for home. She would go the the emergency room when she got back.  She's one tough cookie!!

She even wanted to stop in Rouen, France to see where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.  We just stopped long enough to take a few pictures and run in to a patisserie and grab some baguettes and pastries. 


 (The cross marks the spot where she was burned)

Travis Palmer slept here!

It was a great trip....a trip of a lifetime!
love and miss you all!
-corri