Mont-St-Michel Abbey, France

In AD 708, Bishop Aubert of Avranches built a sanctuary on Mont Tombe after three visions of St. Michael the Archangel told him to build it. Aubert ignored the first two visions as mere dreams, but in the third dream Michael touched his forehead. When the bishop awoke, he had an injury on his skull. He then began the work that would grow into first a pilgrim site then a monastery that became known at Mont-St-Michel.

Visiting the abbey requires a good hike up the mount but is definitely worth the effort. The first room has models showing the various stages of construction on the mount.

Tenth century abbey

11th century abbey

17th century abbey, fort and village below

20th century abbey, town below

Visitors proceed to the west terrace, which has amazing views of the countryside as well as a good external view of the 10th century church that still stands on top of the mount.

View back to mainland France

The church

The spire is new (added in 1897) and is topped with a statue of St. Michael holding a sword and scales. Medieval legend has it that St. Michael will take the dead souls and weigh them in the balance on Judgement Day.

Inside the church the main altar is rather plain but functional (and still in use daily).

Main altar

 Ceiling over the altar

The walls are lined with many fine decorations, mostly bas relief from different centuries.

A French coat-of-arms?

Altar to Bishop Aubert, founder of the monastery

Madonna and Child circa 1100s

Adam and Eve Cast out of Paradise circa 1500s

Crucifixion of Jesus circa 1400s

Just outside the church is the cloister, an open area that connects different parts of the abbey and provides a walking area for the monks, even in the rain.

Cloister

Covered walkway

One building adjoining the cloister is the refectory, where the monks would eat in silence as one of them read from the pulpit in the south wall.

Refectory

Down a staircase is the Guests' Hall, where visitors would be entertained by the monks. The stairway down has a nice relief showing St. Michael visiting Bishop Aubert for the last time.

Touched by an angel, 8th century style

Guests' Hall

Beyond the Hall is the great pillared crypt which holds up the main part of the church above. L found this area spooky so we had to move on quickly.

Great pillared crypt

The next room had a much creepier history, though it has been transformed. The monks' ossuary or charnel house is where the human bones of those buried in the church yard were moved when new people were buried in the yard. During the French Revolution, the abbey was turned into a prison and in 1820, the room became home to a giant wheel and pulley system that pulled supplies up the side of the mount. Prisoners would walk around inside the wheel to draw up sledges full of supplies.

Wheel

The rope that goes out the window

Sledge for holding the supplies

Another set of stairs leads to the Knights' Hall, which served as the work and study room for the monks. They would copy manuscripts and probably kept their library here.

North-south stairs

Knights' Hall

More of the hall

A bit of the mount peeking through

The final room is the almonry, where the monks took in the poor and the pilgrims (sometimes the same people), giving them food and shelter. Such was part of their charitable duties, hence the "alms" in the "almonry." Now it has precisely the opposite purpose--it's the gift shop for taking money from visitors and the exit by which they leave!

Almonry

Eglise St-Pierre, Mont-St-Michel, France

Halfway up to the abbey on Mont-St-Michel is the Eglise St-Pierre, a 15th century church dedicated to St. Peter. It is the parish church for the island and a nice stop on the climb up the mount.

Eglise St-Pierre

Outside is a statue of St. Joan of Arc with some interesting armor.

Joan of Arc, putting the breast in breastplate

Inside is small but comfortable, filled with light and atmosphere.

Sanctuary of the church

There's not much room for other altars, but they have a nice statue of Our Lady and another of St. Michael the Archangel.

A little Marian shrine

Altar of St. Michael

Out back of the church is a graveyard, which impressed us. Real estate is at a premium on this island so it must be very ancient or very posh. It would be a great place to rise at the end of days!

Church graveyard

Mont-St-Michel, France

Mont-St-Michel is one of the most famous places in France. It is a massive rock sticking out of the muddy silt that surrounds in the bay named after it. The mount was occupied in the eighth century when St. Michael the Archangel appeared to local bishop Aubert and asked him to build a monastery on top of it. The first vision happened in a dream. The bishop ignored it. The dream happened again and the bishop still did nothing. On the third night, St. Michael touched the bishop's head in the dream and he awoke with an injury to his skull. He then ordered the construction of the monastery. Over the years the monastery grew and a town sprung up around it (or more properly below it) on the mount. People come from all over the world to visit Mont-St-Michel, just like we did.

We followed signs along the road to a parking lot that didn't seem anywhere near the mount. We were confused until the guy directing traffic told us there was a shuttle bus available.

Mont-St-Michel, seen from the parking lot

If you add a child to the top image, double the walking time

Needless to say, we took the shuttle, which drove past several hotels and restaurants. Getting off, we were much closer.

View from the shuttle stop of the new causeway which will have a tram...eventually

Mont-St-Michel with construction

We entered the town proper through the Porte du Roi, which features a massive gate and a cannon liberated from the British hundreds of years ago. The town was fortified during the Hundred Years' War and still maintains protective walls.

Porte du Roi

A more substantial gate inside

English siege weapon seized by French forces!

The main street is the Grande Rue, which winds its way back and forth up the mountain. It is lined with restaurants, trinket shops, souvenir stands, snack bars, and any other way the locals could think of to get money off visiting pilgrims. We did not do any shopping.

Beginning of the Grande Rue

A wingless St. Michael!

We did have the distinct feeling we were in a miniature Minas Tirith, with the many stair cases and winding passages leading ever up to the top of the hill.

Looking up to the abbey

Looking out to the bay (at low tide)

Looking down on the Grande Rue

Many visitors give up or get distracted before making it to the top, but not us. We were determined to see the abbey and kept going up.

Just one more staircase! (at least that's what we kept telling J and L)

The abbey

The abbey will get its own post, naturally. We did enjoy the view back to the parking lot, which is not easy to make out in the distance.

The way back to our car

After visiting the abbey, we ate our picnic lunch (we assumed all the food would be overpriced at the restaurants and shops). A bird flew near us hoping to get a snack. J did feed it a few crumbs. Luckily, the bird only invited one other friend to filch off us, so it was a pleasant distraction as we ate, rather than a Hitchcock reenactment.

Nice bird!

Up close with the help of zoom and cropping

We took a different route back down the mount, zigzagging through various terraces and gardens on our way to the entrance.

Going back down

On our way, we saw how supplies were brought up to the abbey and are still brought up--a steep railway!

Getting supplies to the top!

The kids were troopers when it came to going up and down. Luckily we went up first, so the easy down part came after they were a little bit tired. The promise of snacks back at the car kept us going.

Almost back to the Porte du Roi

The bus ride back was uneventful and we were soon off on other adventures.

More on the Abbey and a church in the next few posts (after an appropriate Friday the 13th post tomorrow)!