Wednesday, April 24, 2019
This is my first visit to France, and this is my only stop in this country. Fortunately for me, there’s a place close by that has been on my bucket list for eons, and today I’m going to visit there.
Where am I?
What did I see, first thing this morning?
I woke up to another cold morning. It’s also raining. It’s also very early, so I’m kinda grumpy today. I have to be up early because I have a 9.5 hour shore excursion today. We’ll be the first ones to leave the ship. As it turns out we’ll also be the last ones to return.
What’s been happening?
I’ve got a very early shore excursion today, and that’s something I don’t like. Well, I like the excursion part, but I never like getting up early! However, I’m very excited about my destination, so that’s the fuel I’m running on as I depart the ship and walk to the bus in the early, rainy dawn.
By the time the bus leaves the parking lot, the rain is really coming down. This worries me because at least part of my tour today is outdoors. Will this spoil my tour? At this point, I really don’t know.
And it rained hard!
Two hours and 15 minutes later, I arrive at our destination. The rain stopped almost as soon as we arrived, although the sky is still completely covered with clouds. We bail out of the bus, make a quick pit stop at the relief station, and then group up to take the tram to the gate. From the visitor’s center, this is all I can see:
The cost of the tram is included in out tickets, however there is another way to get to the gate for those who don’t mind paying a little extra.
Well, I’m with a tour group so best to stay with the group. We hop on the tram for a 5 minute ride, then when we got off the tram I see what I came here to see. Something I’ve wanted to see since I was in my thirties.
This abbey/fortress sits at the mouth of the Couesnon River which can be seen in these photos I took from the top of the abbey. At high tide, the island is completely surrounded by water and looks a bit like a Disney castle.
As we draw closer to the old city walls, the size and the specter of this place approaches and then exceeds awesome.
The old city walls 
Drawing closer to the abbey 
And, closer. 
Even closer!
Mont-Saint-Michel is the name used for the abbey, the island that it sits on, and the little town on the island at the base of the abbey. The population of the town is approximately 50.
This is the city of Mont-Saint-Michel 
It looks like a trip down Diagon Alley (Harry Potter reference) 
There are hotels here, so you can sleep at the foot of the abbey 
My friends, Mary (left) and Beth (right)
The transition from the town to the abbey is actually across a drawbridge that spans a moat! I checked the moat very closely and carefully. There was no water it in so, obviously, it had no alligators. Why was I expecting alligators? Because every cartoon I’ve ever seen that featured a castle with a moat had alligators!
At this point, we started the climb to the top of the abbey. There are over 200 uneven, medieval cobblestone steps to get to the top. There are also about 200 thousand people here! Ok, not really, but it seems like it!
Before starting the steps, we were told that, as we progressed, the path would get smaller and narrower, and the steps would become steeper and more frequent. We were also told that just when you think you’ve made it to the top or that, at least, you’ve seen the worst of it, you haven’t. Therefore, as I climbed the steps, using as much energy to keep people off of me as I did to take each subsequent step, I started to tire out and that made me worry.
At some point, the seemingly unending steps reached a kind of “plateau.” We were at a cobblestone “patio” kind of area. I was out of breath and was considering calling the whole thing off and returning to the little town down below. I saw our tour guide through the crowd and approached her to ask how much farther we had to go. I was quite relieved to hear that my friends and I had actually made it to the top! Huzzah!
We took a couple of minutes to catch our breaths, and then proceeded into the abbey.
Inside the abbey there is a maze of pathways and rooms. Some rooms were for worship, others were dormitories. Some rooms were little chapels, and some rooms were refectories (places for eating.)
The abbey was not built according to a single plan, but rather started very small and then grew and grew over hundreds of years. This resulted in a maze of pathways connecting oddly placed rooms. Some of the architecture was romanesque. Some of it was gothic. Some of it was post-gothic. This abbey was not planned, but rather, it grew kind of “organically” over the centuries to meet the needs of the times.
But let’s get back to touring those rooms.
We started in the main church area which, interestingly enough, exhibits several different architectural styles. This truly reflects the age of the church and the abbey.
The central church 
Keep looking up!
Continuing our tour, we visit the refectory.
In the refectory, I could not help but think of all those wizards and mug-bloods at Hogwarts. All that is missing in that photo is the floating candles!
Here are some of the other rooms. I’ll pass on the descriptions for now, but know that it took over an hour to wander through these rooms.
A small chapel 
There is very little stained glass 
Ornate detail! 
Looking up to the refectory 
From the courtyard, the refectory 
From the courtyard, the front of the church 
So, with the abbey so high up at the top of the rock island, how did they get their food and supplies? Were silent monks sent down to the town with instructions to buy food and carry it up hundreds of steps in order to make dinner? How many monks? How many trips? Well, here’s the answer to that question.
There’s a wheel:
It’s a bit hard to see, but this gigantic wheel is like a hamster wheel, but made for people! Several men would stand inside the wheel and use their own weight and muscle to turn it. The axel of the wheel is attached to a chain and that chain is attached to a sled.
The wooden sled skids along a couple of wooden “rail” that are attached to the side of the building. The sled would be loaded with whatever needed to be brought up and the men in the wheel would do the work. I can only image the long term effects on the guys that had to work that wheel.
After leaving the hamster room, we decended four flights of very narrow circular steps and, just like that (snaps fingers), we were in the gift shop. Now, we all know that the gift shop is always at the end of the tour, so…
Outside of the abbey we still had a ways to walk down before returning to the town. I should mention at this point that throughout our tour we only felt about two drops of rain. The rain had not spoiled our visit to the abbey, after all.
The outside path down offered us a few sights and attractions, just like the inside had.
A cannon from the 1400s 
A little chapel sitting on a rocky point. 
The top of the abbey 
St. Michael, at the very highest point
And that was the end of our tour.
On the way back to the tram, I stopped and looked back several times. I took just a couple more moments to absorb the beauty and timelessness of the abbey. I also took a moment to consider that I was actually here, exploring a place that I had deeply wanted to see, yet never thought I might. I stood and looked back at that mystical, magical island until I was all filled up. I stepped up into the tram, and headed back to the bus.
Anything else?
Yes, and this is such a cool coincidence. I mentioned that it rained hard on us as we drove to the island, yet it barely even dripped while we were on our tour. Now, as we were just steps from boarding our bus for the return trip, the sky opened up once again and it just poured! It rained all the way back to the ship!
We were so lucky!
So, what’s coming up?
Tomorrow I visit Belgium where a beer tour awaits me!
G’night.
