A Visit to Mont St Michel

In one respect at least, I have stolen a march on the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy’s much publicised faint last Summer when he was forced to forgo a trip to his country’s most visited attraction outride Paris, Mont St Michel in Normandy.  He may not have made it – but I did.

Much refreshed from an overnight crossing on Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to St. Malo, replete with a delicious on-board dinner, I was impatient to see France’s sublime attraction, the floating island of Mont. St. Michel crowned by a Benedictine Abbey, an architectural master-piece built in the 13th-century that replaced the 8th-century original.  The abbey a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1979) is preserved as a national historical monument.

Mont-Saint-Michel, a 3-acre rocky islet topped by a famous Gothic abbey, is one mile off the coast of Normandy in northwest France.  Located 3 miles from the shore during the Middle Ages, it has not been an island for years and  the causeway is never submerged. But this is all about to change. The French Government plans to restore the sacred site of pilgrims for over a millennium to its former glory, a permanent sea-girt soaring Gothic abbey ascending to the heavens.  No wonder frequent visitor, Claude Debussy, drew inspiration here for his beloved piano prelude ‘La Cathedral Engloutie’.

Iconic Mont St. Michel

The Mont’s one cobblestoned street climbs in three spirals from a great granite base to the towering Benedictine abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel at the summit, the destination of more than 3 million annual visitors. Long before the 35 mile drive east from St. Malo was completed, I glimpsed the iconic Mont St. Michel seeming to sail in the distance across the flat landscape.

Being June, there were sightseers aplenty, including a large group of 9-13 year old Brits in day-glo jackets from a Southampton Secondary School. Behind the ramparts, their teachers explained the history.  Before the Mont St Michel Abbey was used by monks beginning in the 8th-century, it was known as Mont Tombe – built on the site of a pagan temple to Mithras.  The statue of Archangel Saint Michael towers 560 feet above the English Channel.  Legend states that the monastery was the work of St Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, who was visited by the archangel Michael.  The angel instructed St Aubert to build a monastery on the rocky mount.  Aubert was said to have repeatedly ignored the angel’s instructions, until the angel burned a hole in his skull! In 708 AD, seemingly, to avoid further discomfort, the bishop hastily complied.  Construction of the current abbey began in 1023 but was not finished for 400 years.  Built with granite from a nearby mini-island owned by the monks and exhaustingly hauled up b y convicts, it encompasses a range of styles, from Norman to Gothic.  It also served as a monastery (there is still a Benedictine Order within the abbey), a prison and a fortress against the English, their ancient foes who in 1415 beat them at Agincourt, and in 1430 burnt their Patron Saint, Joan of Arc, at the stake at Rouen but - and here the French are quick to remind you - never conquered the rocky bastion.

The tides in the area change quickly, and have been described by Victor Hugo as “a la vitesse d’un cheval au gallop” or “as swiftly as a galloping horse.”  The tides can vary greatly, at roughly 14 metres between the high and low water marks.  Medieval pilgrims found themselves in great danger as they made their way across the flats.  The mount can still pose dangers for visitors who avoid the causeway and attempt the hazardous walk across the sands from the neighbouring coast.  I negotiated the hired car into a large parking lot abutting the causeway.  Frankly, it was pandemonium.  The height of the tourist season brings in its trail exhaust fumes, and a frenzied populace.  Mont St Michel was an island until this causeway was built in 1875, when the islet was separated from the mainland by one mile of sand at low tide, or by water at high tide.  On 16 June, 2006, the French prime minister and regional authorities announced a E164 million project to build a hydraulic dam that will remove the accumulate silt and by 2012 make Mont St Michel a perennial island again.  To access the town I passed through two gates, the Boulevard Gate and then the King’s Gate complete with its own portcullis.  The gateways are steeply tiled.  Windows and turrets add charm to restaurants ands bars, and nothing can spoil the tall houses on either side of the narrow twisting street.  A far from arduous staircase twists up to the outer balcony of the abbey, which is flanked by two fine towers.  I took the inner staircase to reach the magical abbey church itself.  The Romanesque nave is topped by a lovely wooden barrel vault.  I walked the cloisters, the refectory, and the knight’s hall.  Walk along the ramparts to look out across the bay.  You can see from here over into Brittany and across the bay to the right as far as Avranches.

Once the new dam is commissioned and the current parking lots have been demolished, 15 hectares of sands will be restored to their natural state. The landscape will fully recover its marine dimension. Through the combined forces of the sea and the River Couesnon, the sediments will be flushed out to sea and the vicinity of the Mont will be clear of salt meadows in its approach.

The action will free the Mont of the stranglehold of the surrounding salt meadows. The well-flavoured meat that results from the diet of sheep in the pre sale (salt meadow) makes agneau de per-sale (salt-meadow lamb) a local speciality that may be found on the menus of restaurant, at Auberge St. Pierre, I found the main course featured such a rack of saltmarsh lamb. Still with the sight of the sheep in view from the battlements, I deferred and chose the chicken supreme marinated in coriander and pistachios with a nicoise-style salad, washed down by a delicious white wine, Muscadet sur Lie.

Removing traffic from a mile of road between the Mont and the mainland will also mean no more exhaust fumes.  When I used it this Summer, there were a thousand vehicles coming and going every hour.  The new shuttle along a sleek jetty will offer silent, zero emission transport.  It will bring an end to noisy, smelly cars and coaches, and restore to its ancient mystical glory a permanent sea-bound Mont St Michel, perched on a layer of golden sand.