Mt. St. Michel has been a monastery and pilgrimage site since about the 10th century. It started out as a simple, single building on a rocky outcrop and is now a towering piece of architecture with smaller buildings tumbling down the sides of the rock. They say that the current abbey structure at the top doubles the height of the original rock. It was this romantic setting and dramatic architecture that inspired us to make our own pilgrimage.
To do this, we traveled 2 hours by train from Paris to Rennes, a city we had never heard anything about. We used that as our base and had a half day to explore Rennes before we ventured out to Mt. St. Michel. Rennes turned out to be a really nice medium size city with a large historic area and a really nice park. They have retained a lot of really interesting medieval-looking timber and plaster architecture.
Different than similar applications we've seen in the UK, the timber patterns are more complex and the buildings are more colorful. I wouldn't be surprised if the color isn't original, but it really adds something to the buildings. Some of the buildings are also exceptionally tall and look like they'd be the medieval equivalent of skyscrapers.
The next day we boarded a bus for a 1 1/2 hour ride out to Mt. St. Michel. A unique shape and a medieval engineering triumph, the abbey building has adapted to the site and is wound around the top of the granite outcrop. The 13th century builders managed to stack a 3 story building on a steep rock face using powerful buttresses. Occasional collapses over the years lead to even more massive supporting columns in the crypts at the base of the building. The inhabitants used the three levels of the building to create a monastic hierarchy with the monks living in isolation at the top, the abbot and noble guests in the middle, and soldiers and pilgrims at the bottom.
There is only one street winding up to the abbey and it is packed with tourists, souvenir shops, restaurants, and hotels. It's almost repulsive tourism. Even as you get close to Mt. St. Michel, you can feel the tourism creeping up on you and almost feel like you're back in the states again—they even have "Alligator Bay" which pushes it over the top. Doesn't sound very French and made me feel like I was in Florida.
Luckily, we found some small side paths that bypassed the chaos on the way to the top. This was the first time we have actually seen an abbey intact. Because of its soaring walls, twisting uphill approach, and incredible views, it's also the most dramatic.
The Romanesque nave.
The enclosed 13th century Anglo-Norman cloisters.
Known as the Knights' Hall, this was the monks' work and study room. (Check out Pat standing inside one of the two huge fireplaces).
A small, isolated chapel on the back of the island. The only access looks like it would be cut off by the tide.
The mudflats around Mt. St. Michel at low tide.
After the French Revolution, this became a prison to 300 priests who were put to work in various ways, including this hamster wheel. Two men would run in the wheel (a medieval technology) to wind a rope that would pull wood sledges loaded with building supplies up a steep stone ramp that looks almost like another buttress from the outside.
In the 15th century, the French surrounded the island with massive fortifications to resist English cannons during the Hundred Years' War. Although the English conquered much of the surrounding land, they never took this island and it became a symbol of national identity in France.
And of course the best part of our trip to Mt. St. Michel was the weather. It couldn't have been a more beautiful, sunny day. We basked in the sun, were comfortable in t-shirts for most of the day, and even left a little pink. It was almost like a summer day in England :)
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