June 1, 2018
Day 67: Mont St Michel
We were pleasantly surprised to find that the included breakfast here at the Gabriel included eggs, cheese, ham, fruit salad, and similar items not found in the standard French included breakfast. Now we knew that tomorrow we will be sent down the road with a good supply of anti-bonk food in our pack. Today, of course, we didn't need it because there is all manner of stuff on Mt. St Michel.
Our threat to start walking in advance of the 8 oclock first shuttle did not materialize. We were probably sitting a long time with that good breakfast spread. We walked quietly over to the shuttle stop, enjoying the lack of any cars or people around. That lasted only a couple of minutes, as a nearby hotel disgorged a long column of Japanese tourists, who flooded over to take up positions all over "our" bus stop. The thing about tour groups is not so much which country they are from but the fact that they move as a block. The block will go and stand all around the statue, or whatever point of interest, and thereby prevent all others from having a look or an unobstructed photo.
When we got to the entry point for the Mont we temporarily outfoxed the group. That is because we had already to decided not to walk up the street of shops on the way to the Abbey above, but to take a back entrance as outlined in Rick Steves' guidebook.
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The history of Mont St Michel is usually given as beginning in 708, when Aubert, Bishop of nearby Avranches is said to have had several visitations from archangel Michael, and finally got the point when the angel jammed a thumb in Aubert's head. Aubert had a sanctuary built in honour of Michael, on the top of what then was called Mont- Tombe.
The original structure was quite modest, but it was enlarged mightily over the years. In the 10th century the Bendictines took up residence, and the site became a major pilgimage destination. The village grew up below the abbey, and by the 14th century basically all the space on the rock was occupied.
During the 100 years war (1337 to 1453) ramparts and fortifications were installed, and actually the Mont withstood all English assaults. I remarked to Dodie that now for 10 euros any and all English (including us) can just walk in. Still, the success against the English set the Mont up as a symbol for French national pride.
The abbey suffered greatly as a result of the Revolution, with the religious community dissolved and the premises used as a prison, until 1863. However in 1874 it was declared a historic monument, and probably continuous restoration work began. Some monks did return, but really the spot has remained only a secular thing. We did spot one, but only one, obvious pilgrim.
When one comes to Mont St Michel it is the architecture in the form of the vertical construction, the massive church built on supporting crypts, the higgledy piggedly picturesque town buildings, and the intertidal sand flats and polder fields beyond that immediately capture all attention. Walking up to the church, it was all of this that struck us immediately.
Here is a pictorial sense of some of that:
As we climbed we could see so clearly the river coming to the foreshore, the sandflats, and the polder farms inland:
At low tide the Mont is just surrounded by sand, and at high tide it is an island. Before the causeway or the current bridge, pilgrims would need to walk the sand to get to the abbey. If they miscalculated they could be drowned by the fast moving tide or they could sink in quicksand. Even today there are warnings about this posted about.
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Visiting an abbey involves more than visiting a church because while an abbey contains a church, it also has spaces like a cloister, gardens, refectory (dining room), scriptorium (for copying manuscripts), reception halls, guest quarters, etc. We used the self guided tour within Rick Steves' France guide, pausing to read the entries from Kindle on our tablet. There was an available audio guide at the ticket office, but we find such guides are usually too detailed. For this blog, we would not presume to take you on two hour tour! So here are just a few photos.
The main church, had it not been within such a massive structure might be labelled quite plain. But it was fascinating, just for that reason of where and what it was. Different styles of architecture can be seen in the room. Some bits are Roman in style and some are Gothic.
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As we sat on the pews, we were trying to murmur to ourselves what we were reading of Rick Steves on the tablet about what was to come next. But we couldn't hear ourselves murmur because of the chattering of the Japanese tourists behind us. We had to turn around and shush them. Dodie pointed out that (unlike us?) they are not Christians and may not have a tradition of quiet in a church. But what do they do in a temple back home?
This question of the cultural interface with the Japanese tourist came up again later, in the gift shop. I noticed one fellow was very interested in the wooden swords being sold for kids. Hi wife told me that he was a Bushi (samurai - practitioner of bushido). Clearly, he had a way to emotionally link to the medieval knights. They bought the sword.
The room that caught our attention the most was the cloister. It did this by using very narrow columns, in an offset pattern. From a photographic point of view, it was great.
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Evidence of the destruction from the Revolution could be seen in "defaced" (litteraly) or beheaded statues. For example, here we have Michael sticking his thumb into Aubert, but he has lost most of his head.
We could not necessarily understand the structural details of this complex set of buildings. But we did learn that the main church was supported by several crypts, and that the one supporting the apse (area behind the altar) had collapsed in the 15th century. The rebuild was made extra sturdy, with fat no nonsense columns. One of the other crypts also took a cautious approach, with really thick walls.
If you think your head is hurting as we take you around this place, think of Dodie's knees - as moving from room to room usually involved stairs. Also, it's time to be getting hungry, so let's skip out of the abbey and down into the village street. The number one restaurant here is called Chez La Mere Pollard, which has a specialty of wood fired omelettes. Lunch there runs about 38 euros. We cheaped out, for 23 euros at one called Terrasses de la Baie. It was nice, and since we were just a tad before noon we got a seat overlooking the water (sand!).
Our meal was good, but was more like what you would expect with a 13 euro plat du jour. The other 10 euros was made up of "ambiance", but still worth it.
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It seems most of the people were in the lower town, or perhaps its just that spaces are tighter there. It was fun to observe them. There were various groups of school kids. One group came with workbooks, and they were obviously treasure hunting to identify photos they had been given. Also, at one point kids began to pour out of a crack between two buildings, that hid a long and high staircase. We politely waited for them to exit, but they kept coming and coming. Eventually we joined their teacher in counting them through - 42! It's one thing to get the expected count of 42, but we hope the teacher actually had the correct 42!
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As we made our way back down the main alley, I ducked into some of the shops for a peek, leaving Dodie to take a seat on a bench or wall. It was a pretty safe procedure from Dodie's point of view, since I had not brought my wallet and therefore was going in without anything to spend. At the bottom I noticed that by the washrooms there was also an ATM, and this struck me as very efficient. This way, one could pour money down the toilet without the inconvenience of stopping off at a souvenir shop.
Bonus: The Barrage
Up until 2013 there existed here a solid causeway that led to a large parking lot directly at the Abbey buildings. It was found that these structures were interfering with the natural flow of tidal water and especially silt, and that the bay was getting silted up. The solution was to remove the causeway and parking lot, substituting the bridge suspended on legs and the system of free shuttle buses running from an inland parking lot. There were fun shenanigans about this, which I have so far only read a bit about, involving where the shuttle buses would run from and stop. Apparently the mayor at the time had them stopping in front of businesses he owned and bypassing those of competitors! He was taken to court and fined 30,000 euros over this.
The other part of the preservation scheme was the replacement of a dam just up the river. The dam had been built to control flooding of farmland beyond as tides raced up river. In the new system a barrage allows a controlled flow of tidal water up river, after to getting it to wait a bit in order for the sediment to settle out. The upriver water is stored until low tide, when it is released, causing a flushing out effect of the estuary.
Naturally, there were a lot of panels explaining and illustrating all this. I think, but can not guarantee that I have captured the gist. We wanted to see the thing in action, but just as we can not generally seem to arrive in towns when the market is on, we do not seem to be around the barrage when there is some action to observe.
Tomorrow our route will initially take us by the barrage and up the river. We really like the path, and it will be a good start for our sojourn in Normandy. The river (Couesnon) forms the boundary between Normandy and Brittany. Our friend Michel has observed that it is a shame that Mont St. Michel is on the "wrong" (not Brittany) side of the border. We would like it no matter where it is.
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I first visited M St M about 25years ago with our daughter Jane we were able to soak the whole thing up with just comfortable crowds and spent most of a day there. On our ride from London to Lisbon ken and I returned Got into the main gates and the crowds of tourist groups enveloped us. We thought we just couldnt bear it so turned around and rode back to our camping ground ! (we must have been young and mobile then to be camping)
I feel for Dodie's struggle with the stairs on our trip last year I really had to stay put when we reached our hotel but this year will be a new person and be able to explore on foot. It is amazing how forgiving cycling is to aging bodies
Keep safe
TRicia
5 years ago