Le Mont St. Michel

After finding the statue in St. Lo, we headed west towards one of the most famous tourist attractions in France. Le Mont St. Michel was built as an Abbey in the 700's and is unique because it is built on a small rocky island that was only accessible at low tide by a land bridge at the time of its construction. (Of course, now, there is a small free-way and huge parking lot.) It functioned as an Abbey for the majority of its history, with the exception of a period of time in the 1800's when it was a prison. Driving in, it really is a remarkable sight. Surrounded by a massive beach on all sides (the tides here are the most dramatic in all of Europe and we were there during low tide.), it was really like nothing we had ever seen before.

We thought the author of our guide book was a complete travel snob when we read the pages of his book devoted to the Mont. He used words like "hordes of tourists" and "rows of souvenir shops." We thought, "of course it attracts tourists, it's amazing! How bad can it be?" The answer is pretty darn bad. There is an entire lot dedicated to huge tour buses and the island is tiny and very old.....which means its one street is very narrow which means very grid-locked. . And it is called "Mont" for a reason. Not only is the street narrow, it is steep. And the guide book author was not exaggerating when he described the souvenir shops. Buying cheap trinkets as souvenirs is apparently not just an American past-time. It must be universal because the shops at le Mont were doing some major business when we arrived in the mid afternoon. Here is a pic of the street after the tour buses departed and things calmed down.


Super cool without the crowds, but pretty tough with the crowds. After a quick lunch, we toured the Abbey which was really amazing. Just being in a structure that is 1300 years old was enough to astound me. Add some awesome views and beautiful architecture and it is easy to understand why all the tour buses flock here everyday. Here are a couple of photos from our tour of the Abbey.







And here is Peter outside our hotel room...... pretty cool location for a hotel, huh? Those of you who know how much Peter enjoys crowds, know that he isn't looking off into the horizon, contemplating the beauty of the place, but is actually straining to see which crepe stand also sells Heineken.



After we found beer for Peter and a coca cola light for me, we left the crowds to take advantage of the low tide. At low tide, you can walk all the way around the island and it was a perfect retreat from the photo crazed mob inside. Here are a couple of pics from our walk.




When we returned from our walk, a miracle had occurred...... everyone had left. Suddenly, we were no longer in Gatlinburg, TN, but in some kind of medieval fairy-tale. I know that is a really cheesy description, but after the crowds left, it was mystical. The entire place is accessible and we spent over an hour exploring..... finding different staircases and bridges and seeing where they led us. It was really incredible. Here are a couple of pics from our crowd-free explorations.




Next stop: The castles of Loire Valley