Mont Saint-Michel--WOW

Nancy and I headed back to the MV Explorer which had moved from Belgium to Le Havre, France after visiting Monet's gardens.  We needed to be be back for a SAS field trip the next day to visit Mont Saint-Michel--a couple of hour bus trip north of Le Havre. Nancy had been once before when she was doing semester abroad while a student, and thought it was worth the return trip almost 40 years later.  I just thought it sounded cool, so I was quite "wowed" when it loomed up in front of us from the bus.

I will let you read all about it at the Wikipedia site for Mont Saint-Michel  It is a World Heritage Site, and began serving as a monastery in the 8th century.  When I think of the age of the University of Virginia, I think history, but this place puts American History in the place of  modern times in a relative sense. We departed the bus and caught a tram to the island. Let me explain here that it is an "island" but has a causeway that was built a number of years ago.  The result of the causeway has been much silting and change of ocean currents, so there is a move underway to cut the causeway in 2016 and only use a new bridge as access.

Our guide was a soft-spoken Frenchman who had only led one previous visit here, so it wasn't the best experience as a guided tour, but that didn't matter too much for most of us.  It was also very crowded with tourists in the narrow ancient maize of pathways.

Our first stop inside the walls was at the Sanctuary of Saint Michel  where we viewed some of the beautiful stained glass and  layout of the church.

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Our next stop was up steep steps to enter the actual Abbey.

 The  various terraces afforded us views from all around--both above and below.  The students were all smiling and enjoying the history and incredible stonework.  It's hard to imagine how something like this was built.

One very noticeable event was the low tide which can vary more than 40 feet from high tide.   People can walk out on this area, but have to be careful when the tide is coming in.

We were able to view a worship service from the vestibule, including very nice music.

The interior spaces include gardens for meditation and prayer, and again, the stonework detail was impressive.

We wandered around various chambers and rooms, marveling at the stonework.  I discovered that I could hum in one room, and the sound would fill the room with the reverberation that kept going even after I stopped.  That was quite cool.

As we made our way out, we got to see the giant wheel where men actually walked to move things up and down through a pulley system.

After we exited, we had a chance to walk the ramparts, the outer walls, and you could see what great protection this offered.

We finished by walking among some of the narrow passageways, had an ice cream cone and headed back to the ship after a great day.