France 2003 Travelogue

Sunday October 5
Mont St Michel

Mont St Michel Many years ago, while studying French in Junior High School, I came across a picture of what, to my fourteen-year-old mind, seemed to be the most amazing place on earth. The subject of the picture was Mont St Michel, an austere, and obviously ancient, stone "castle" that appeared to be as much a product of nature as of human endeavor. For thirty years, the image of this mysterious medieval fortress hovering above the horizon has haunted my curiosity. On this day, I would see it for real.

We followed the backroads out of Honfleur and converged with the A13 Autoroute near Pont l'Évêque, a place name familiar to connoisseurs of fine cheese. At Caen, we veered southwest and drove through the heart of the Calvados region of France, famous for apple cider. Outside of Avranches, we caught our first glimpse of Mont St Michel. The sight was mesmerizing.

We soon picked up a small road called the Route de la Baie, which offers a scenic approach to the island. It seemed to take forever to cover the last few miles to the Mont because I couldn't resist repeatedly pulling over for pictures. I captured all the mandatory shots. Mont St Michel with cattle grazing in the foreground. Mont St Michel with cattle lazing in the foreground. Mont St Michel with sheep grazing in the foreground. And so on. The disruption of the flat coastal horizon by this apparition from the Middle Ages is a powerfully appealing image that can quickly become an obsession for even the most casual photographer.

Mont St Michel The Fortress Abbey
The real Mont St Michel is only slightly less mysterious and haunting than it seemed to me so many years ago. It is ancient, more than one thousand years old, but it is not a castle. It is a fortified abbey. Surrounded by quicksand and treacherous tides, the origins of Mont St Michel are obscured by time, legend, and a modest amount of religious propaganda. I am not the only one that has found images of this island abbey to be compelling. Mont St Michel is the top tourist attraction in France that is located outside of Paris.

After the Eiffel Tower, the silhouette of Mont St Michel is probably the most recognizable in France. As one of our souvenir refrigerator magnets proclaims, this is where the "sea meets the sky." The golden statue of the Archangel Michael (St Michel), which crowns the abbey spire, is either just under or just over, depending upon the tide, 500 feet from the water of the English Channel.

The abbey of Mont St Michel was founded more than twelve centuries ago. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared to the Bishop of Avranches and commanded him to construct an abbey on the rocky island near the mouth of the River Couesnon. Construction began in the 8th century and continued for eight hundred years as substantial additions were introduced every century or so. Later construction completely engulfed the earliest buildings, so that the oldest exterior structures date from the 11th century.

The synthesis of natural and man-made defenses of the island were formidable and, despite repeated attempts, it never fell to hostile invaders. The massive granite ramparts, constructed in the 13th century and interrupted by a single gate, accentuated the steep terrain to create a highly defensible position. This site was so heavily fortified that, after the revolution, it was used as a prison. Sort of the Alcatraz of Europe. If the massive fortifications and rugged natural setting were not formidable enough to detour unwelcomed visitors, the island is surrounded by quicksand and some of the most powerful tides in Europe. The last lesson in life learned by many a medieval pilgrim was that knee-deep sticky sand and rapidly rising tides are a lethal combination. Today, a causeway, constructed in 1877, connects the island to the shore, and the only drownings around Mont St Michel are of rental cars parked by careless tourists.

Grande Rue, Mont St Michel Up the Grande Rue
Mont St Michel is not just an abbey, it is also a village. It is, of course, a very small village. A village with a single, strictly pedestrianized, street. The Grande Rue, the path that countless medieval pilgrims have followed to the abbey gates is now tightly packed with tourist shops and restaurants. The climb is relentless and steep, but never lonely. This must be one of the most crowded streets in France, if not Europe. Not all visitors make it to the top, where the village ends and the monastery begins. Most, however, keep moving upward, toward the abbey in the sky.

Fortunately, the Grande Rue is as picturesque as it is narrow and steep. It reminded me of the Drosselgasse in Rüdesheim, Germany. Both streets are narrow, crowded and lined with 15th and 16th century houses that have been converted to tourist shops.

About halfway up the Mont, the medieval village ends and the lowest portions of the abbey are encountered. From this point, those familiar with European architecture will likely notice that they are now climbing through time as well as space, at least symbolically, as the architectural style progresses from Romanesque, to mixed Romanesque-Gothic, and culminating in pure French Gothic. Like fossil variations in geologic strata, old and massive Romanesque-style reinforced foundations progress to younger and lighter Gothic-style flying buttresses. The scheme of "higher equals younger" extends to the abbey spire and the statue of Saint-Michel with which it is crowned. Both were late 19th century additions, and are among the youngest historically significant features on the island.

Mont St Michel We finally reached the top only to discover that the abbey had closed 15 minutes earlier. Although this was one of the great disappointments of the trip, we had no regrets about visiting Mont St Michel. In some sense, the abbey is best appreciated from a distance. Certainly not the distance of a 14-year-old kid looking at a picture in a book, yet not so close as to be confronted with the tacky souvenir stalls of the Grande Rue. The view from the Route de la Baie was ideal, and in my opinion, the highlight of the day. Close enough to see that it was real, but far enough to maintain the illusion that this was a mysterious place inhabited by medieval pilgrims. That's how I will always think of Mont St Michel.

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More Images of Mont St Michel and Normandy