Mont Saint Michel - Monday 10/17/2011

A short 4 hour drive from La Rochelle brought us to the fabled Monastery of Mont Saint Michel. Built originally in 708, it has been expanded, razed by fire, hacked by French Libertarians, and restored as a tourist destination. There are still monks here and would have had vespers at 5PM except not on Monday!  

Until very recently, the Abbey was isolated on an island and could only be reached during low tide when you can walk across the sand

This "highway" is about as wide as our driveway! And the speed limit is 90 Km/Hr (55 mph!)

Our hotel is on Grand Rue along with dozens of shops, restaurants, and hotels

A restaurant is associated with our hotel

Our rooms were not in the hotel building but up Grand Rue a hundred feet and in this alcove!

Again, this is Europe - small yet adequate

The bathroom is even snugger than the one in Lourdes!

When we learned we had to pack everything up Grand Rue AND up this winding staircase, we decided to bring the minimum up in our Consolidated Tours tote bags!

A nice view from our window

Grand Rue

A small chapel nearby

just behind our rooms is this small cemetery

So, we decided to visit the Abbey! What a few steps?!

And more steps?? 

And MORE STEPS! We figured we went up 500 steps to get to the ticket seller, then another 300 to reception!

By dumb luck we caught an English language guided tour ready to leave! Here we waited for the tour outside the main church

Inside the main church

And of course, St Michael (still don't know what's with the scales)

A lovely courtyard outside the monastery

These huge columns are in the crypt and hold up the massive church

St Michael again (without the scales)

This large man powered (think squirrel cage) winch brought stuff up an inclined ramp

The ramp has a safety shield now

This ramp was used to bring food up for prisoners after the French Revolution when anything religious was confiscated and used by the state - here as a prison. In an earlier age, a similar tack was used to bring the building materials up

A beautiful garden

There just wasn't room for flying buttresses, so they had to make due with smaller reinforcement butresses

The steps seemed shorter going down!

Many places you can see the island's rock as part of the Abey foundation

And in some places, the rock is reinforced by man-made structures

Near day's end on Grand Rue

We bought a baguette in La Rochelle and had sandwiches & a couple of beers sitting on an interior wall (not the wall over the bay) overlooking the bay (next to a restaurant that offered Bay View seating at appropriate prices!) 

Tomorrow, the D-Day beaches of Normandy and overnight in Rouen!