← All articles · France · 6 May 2013

Mont Saint-Michel

Mont Saint-Michel in May 2013: the abbey and its cloister, a walk on the bay at low tide, and the whole island lit up gold long after the crowds left.

Some places look photoshopped in real life. Mont Saint-Michel, an abbey-topped island rising out of a Normandy bay, is the reigning champion. We gave it two days in May 2013 and it earned every hour.

Inga and Dileep on the causeway with Mont Saint-Michel rising behind them under a blue sky — Arrival on the causeway, May 2013. One of us dressed for Normandy, the other for a western.

Mont Saint-Michel abbey with its spire rising above the trees on the island — The abbey stacked on its rock, with the gilded Saint Michael balancing on the very top of the spire.

Up in the abbey

The climb through the village ends at the abbey, and the abbey keeps unfolding: church, terraces, and the cloister of La Merveille floating above the bay.

The abbey church tower and turret of Mont Saint-Michel against a deep blue sky — Granite, lichen and a sky showing off. The abbey up close.

The cloister garden of Mont Saint-Michel abbey ringed by slender double columns — The cloister garden, a square of green suspended between church and sea.

Inga standing between the double rows of slender columns in the abbey cloister — Inga found the one gap in the colonnade where the columns line up forever.

Dileep photographing the chimney inside a huge stone fireplace in the abbey — A fireplace you can stand in. Dileep, naturally, photographed the inside of the chimney.

Down in the village

Inga peering into the barrel of a huge medieval cannon by the entrance of Mont Saint-Michel — The giant bombards by the gate have sat here since a failed English siege. Inga checks the barrel; still empty.

The hanging sign of La Confiance bar restaurant on the narrow main street of Mont Saint-Michel — The Grande Rue is one narrow street of signs like this, stacked to the abbey gates.

Out on the bay

At low tide the sea backs off for miles and the bay turns into a walkable plain of sand. It is famously treacherous without a guide, and famously irresistible with one.

Dileep standing in the bay at low tide with Mont Saint-Michel small on the horizon behind him — Standing in what is technically the sea. The Mont keeps an eye on us from the horizon.

A nun in a blue habit walking barefoot across the sand flats with a wooden staff — A nun crossing the flats barefoot, staff in hand, exactly as pilgrims have for a thousand years. Our favourite photo of the trip.

After dark

The day-trippers drain away with the tide, and that is when the island does its best work.

Mont Saint-Michel lit up at dusk under an orange and blue sky, seen from the dark causeway road — Dusk from the road. The sky did this for about ten minutes and we forgot to breathe.

Inga and Dileep at night in front of the floodlit Mont Saint-Michel — Last walk of the night. Worth every one of the cold fingers it cost.

If you are weighing up a day trip from Paris: stay the night instead. The Mont after dark is a different, better place.