Thursday October 2nd.
St Malo is a delightful little port in Brittany, France. The old city built on a rocky island joined to the shore has walled ramparts, with much of the city being rebuilt since the 1940s after heavy shelling in WWII. Has some beautiful sandy beaches and no doubt a popular summer destination. Some fabulous looking homes on the cliff edges.
We tendered ashore and had a nice drive through countryside to Mont Saint Michel- the second most visited tourist attraction in France (glad it was a “quiet” day!) Built on a small rocky islet in a 200 square metre bay, Mont Saint Michel was once a Benedictine Abbey, then a prison and now once again a monastery with a different group of monks and nuns. The Abbey rises over 500 feet above sea level and is surrounded by sand flats where the daily tides can change as much as 14 metres so it sometimes looks like the Abbey is floating in the sea. Unfortunately the tide was out but still very dramatic with some great reflections on the sand banks.
At the mount’s summit is the Abbey itself with its ensemble of eclectic buildings soaring high above the sea. The Abbey was meticulously and symbolically designed including the height of the statue of Saint Michael at the top exactly as high above the mount as the mount is above the sea. Marvellous architecture when you think every stone was hauled there from the Channel Islands. We enjoyed wandering the steep narrow cobblestone streets, arcaded cloisters, vaulted halls and maze like passages and stairways of the Abbey itself. There is also a huge wooden wheel which was ‘driven’ by prisoners at one stage – used like a crane to lift rocks up to building sites.
Link to photos of Mont St Michel
Only 18 people now live in the village including 5 monks and 7 nuns. There is a huge building project going on around the site to restore the island on which the Abbey sits to its original state as an island and counteract natural forces of silting around the salt marshes. Silting has resulted in more land being useable around the local area and “infill”. Sheep that graze on land in this area are highly prized for their meat and salty taste.
