Mont Saint-Michel
With such a picture, why do I even need to talk much about Mont St Michel? How many places to visit in Europe can be compared to Mont St-Michel? Yet it is rather sad that not enough people mention it.
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
Quick Facts
Admission fee: Adult €9 / Reduced rate €5.50 / Free for under 18 or under 26 if a citizen of EU
Hours: May-Aug 9am – 7pm / Apr-Sep 9.30am – 6pm
Audio guide: €4.50 (€6 for couple)
Parking fee: Car €6 per day
Getting There
If it sounds good already, you must be curious as to where it is and how to get there.
Mont St-Michel is located in the Normandy departement.
- Car
The best way to get here is by car because there isn’t any direct train station that will stop at Mont St-Michel.
It’s about 4.5 hours drive from Paris, about 1.5 hours from Caen, about 1 hour 20 minutes from Saint-Lô, and about 1 hour 20 minutes from Rennes.
- Train + Bus
The best public transport solution from Paris is to take the TGV to Rennes.
From Rennes, take the shuttle service run by Keolis Emeraude for about 90 minutes (€11.40 / reduced €8.60).
Another option is to take the TGV to Pontorson-Mont-Saint-Michel train station, but there aren’t that many rides in a day from Paris.
The last option to take a bus starting from Saint Malo.
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| Mont Saint-Michel in the night |
- Tour
If DIY traveling isn’t your style, then there are tours that depart from Paris.
This tour (€105 excluding lunch) departs from Paris at 7:15 am every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Mont Saint-Michel Daytime
Abbaye du Mont St-Michel
One of the best attractions in Mont St-Michel is definitely the Benedictine abbey. The abbey was begun in a romanesque style, but it went through more phases of construction, resulting in a blend of gothic and romanesque. This abbey went all the way back to the 11th century!
Go inside to admire the beautifully adorned cloister, the serene garden, the chapel, the ambulatory and all that the abbey has to offer. This abbey escaped the bombings of World War II because nobody thought it was significant. Instead, most of the damage done in the abbey was due to the French revolution.
The French revolution rebelled violently against the corrupted clergy and hated anything slightly religious. Most of the human face statues in the abbey were destroyed as they were usually faces of angels or saints. Statues of animals and plants remained untouched.
The Island
A Street in Mont Saint-Michel
Mont St-Michel is surrounded by a body of waters whose tide kept changing throughout the year and throughout the day. There are certain parking areas that would be off-limit from a certain time of the day because your cars would be submerged under the water if you were to park there past a certain hour.
That also means that you can go up in the Mont St-Michel and watch the strong tidal waves at certain points of the day. Brilliant sight!
The city itself feels very medieval. It’s not a surprise that it’s part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There are many souvenir shops lined on the streets. It wouldn’t take you to turn every stone when you want to buy just some crêpes or some glaces.
As you can see in the picture, the whole island is also a citadel. I think there aren’t many islands today that are wholly covered by a fortification like this.
In the past, Mont St-Michel was more pivotal in the defense of France as the soldiers there defended bravely against England in the 100 Years’ War. From this courageous history, the king of France honored the soldiers by establishing the order of the Knights of St-Michel.
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| Mont Saint-Michel 2 |
My Experience
I went to Mont St-Michel during summer. As those who’re familiar with the Europe, the sun could set around 10 pm. I decided to sleep in Beauvoir, which was even nearer than Pontorson. I went to the inn at around 11 pm and then drove off to see the spectacular Mont St-Michel at night.
As you can tell from the pictures, I think Mont St-Michel looks fabulous both in the day and at night. It’s just a bit harder to see Mont St-Michel in the dark if you were to take the public transport.
Perhaps, if you want to go to Mont St-Michel on a bike, you can start off from Pontorson.
One of the things I loved about Mont St-Michel is the pretty streets where you really feel like you could be in one of those movies from the medieval era. Another is the fact that you could very easily go up to a high vantage point and view your beautiful surroundings.
Also I had quite a bit of fun in the abbey. There was a free tour guide of the abbey in English, and there were plenty of interesting things in the boutique. We bought a number of posters, and “I was in Mont St Michel” tees, as well as medieval-styled coin pouches.
Final Words
I am very serious that there were very few experiences in France that could match the magic of Mont St-Michel. There was nothing else like Mont St-Michel anywhere else.
If you were to plan a trip to France, if you could, really prioritize visiting Mont St-Michel. In terms of rank, if Paris is first, perhaps Versailles is still second, but Mont St-Michel could be third.
I know that it would a whole day to visit Mont St-Michel, but for me, it’s worth it. This is in fact, one of the places in Europe that you ought to consider visiting.