44 km
south of Granville via D 973, N 175n and D 43 : 123 km southwest of
Caen, 67 km north of Rennes, 325 km west of Paris.
Wrought by
nature and centuries of tireless human toil, this sea-surrounded mass
of granite adorned with the soul-lifting silhouette of the abbey of
Mont-St-Michel may well be your most lasting image of Normandy. The
abbey is perched on a 264-ft-high rock a few hundred yards off the
coast : it's surrounded by water during the year's highest tides and by
desolate sand flats the rest of the time. Be warned : tides in the bay
are dangerously unpredictable. The sea can rise up to 45 ft at high
tide and rushes in at incredible speed - more than a few ill-prepared
tourists over the year have drowned. Also, be warned that that there
are patches of dangerous quicksand.
Because of its legendary origins and the sheer
exploit of its construction, the abbey is known as the Merveille de
l'Occident (Wonder of the Western World) : the granite used to build it
was transported from the nearby Isles of Chausey and hauled up to the
site. The abbey's construction took more than 500 years, from 1017 to
1521. Legend has it that the archangel Michael appeared to Aubert,
Bishop of Avranches., inspiring him to built an oratory on what was
then called Mont-Tombe. The original church was completed in 1144, but
further buildings were added in the 13th century to accommodate monks
as well as the hordes of pilgrims who flocked here even during the
Hundred Year's War, when the region was in english hands. The
Romanesque Choir was rebuilt in Gothic style during the 15th and the
16th Centuries. The abbey's monastic independence was undermined during
the 17th century, when the monks began to flout the strict rules and
discipline of their order, drifting into a state of decadence that
culminated in their dispersal and the abbey's conversion into a prison,
well before the French Revolution. In 1874, the former abbey was handed
over to a governmental agency responsible for the preservation of
historic monuments. Emmanuel Fremiet's great gilt statute of
St-Michael was added to the spire in 1897. Monks now live and work here
again, as in medieval times : you can join them for daily mass at 12h15.
