Mont St. Michel | trudymason.com

Day 22, Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Here we are walking out to Mont St. Michel. It is a three kilometre walk from the car park to this UNESCO World heritage site. Be warned, this is a photo heavy post.

The sheep under the bridge attract a lot of attention. I wish I had time to sit and draw them, but Mont St. Michel beckons…

Almost there!

We climb the ramparts right after the entrance gates while the sun is shining. There is a chance of rain this afternoon. The Abbey church dominates the skyline.

The streets below are crowded and more people are arriving by the minute. The group with the white hats are pilgrims from Southern France. I spoke to one of the ladies later in the day who sat by us while we were having lunch.

I love the little conical roof over the dormer window.

The streets are narrow and they fill up quickly. We are told that in high season you can barely walk through the streets as there are so many people.

Soon we are among the hordes of people climbing the tall narrow 319 steps to the Abbey.

We bought our tickets online so we get to walk right past a long line of people waiting to buy tickets.

This model of the abbey shows the back side which is only visible if you walk on the sands at low tide or travel by boat.There are usually 5 monks and 7 nuns who live at the abbey and there are only 25-30 people who actually live on Mont Saint Michel. We sat and listened to part of the mass, from the side of the church. The singing was really lovely and I found it interesting that the nuns and the priest sat on the floor of the church during the service.

Next we walk through the cloister with its many narrow columns and a view of the church tower.

The Host’s room has two enormous fireplaces. Here I am standing in one and the little round circle is looking up the chimney towards the sky. This is where food was prepared and where the Abbot received important visitors. The bottom photo is the Refectory where the monks ate their meals.

Another view of the Host’s room with its beautiful arched ceiling.
There are so many interesting doors in this abbey.

The Crypt des Gros Pillars (Big Pillars’ Crypt) with its ten huge pillars was built to support the choir in the abbey above.There are so many smaller rooms and interesting spaces to be explored. This one is off the side of the crypt.When the Abbey was used solely as a prison in the 1800’s, this huge wheel was was used to haul supplies up to the abbey. Prisoners walking inside the wheel were able to raise and lower a cart along a stone ladder inclined along the rock wall.

Here you can see where the cart was hauled up the side of the abbey.

The Salle des Chevliers or Knight’s room was most likely used by the monks as a place of meditation and for copying and illustrating manuscripts.

When we walk out into the gardens we see that the ocean is now at low tide and the sand bars are visible all around Mont St. Michel.We hear shrieks and peals of laughter and realize that is is coming from the people out walking on the sands now that the tide is out. Some of them are thigh deep in the water! There are a lot of people out there, some of them way off in the distance. Thanks, but I am happy to pass walking in mud and cold water.

We stop at this little art gallery and I have chat with the artist. She has a variety of different styles and media, and I found her work very appealing.

It starts to rain so we duck into the Parish Church of St. Peter for a well needed sit down. I draw the statue on the wall while Bob rests and then goes for a little walk about so that I have time finish my drawing.

I forgot to see if there was plaque saying who the sculpture was.Bob took interesting photos of the inside and outside view of these two stained glass windows.

People are still coming and going…lots of people!

This photo of the bell tower just barely shows the golden statue of St. Michael threatening a dragon, who represents evil, with his sword. St. Michael is perched 156 metres high, is 4.5 metres tall and weighs 520 kg. The statue is made of gilded copper and serves as a lightning rod.