Mont St. Michel

10/21/2014

Mont St. Michel

We made a pit stop at Carrefour this morning to buy a day’s worth of croissants for the drive to our next hotel. We’d discovered yesterday that Carrefour’s raisin croissant snail rolls are delicious—chock full of liqueur-soaked raisins and cream. Angel loves the flakiness of the outside and I love the sogginess of the inside, so it’s a perfect combination.

The winds here the day we visited was 145 km/hour--blew us sideways as we were walking! That's 90 miles per hour!

It’s a 90 minute drive from Bayeux to Mont St. Michel, most of which was in heavy rain. The rain was pelting down so hard, there were times I couldn’t even see out the windshield! Yet everyone was driving fast—not like Silicon Valley at all. When it rains in the Bay Area, everyone starts driving like it’s their first time on the road, aka 5 miles/hour. Again, some of our journey was in one-lane country roads where it’s actually two directions, so you gotta slow down and move to the side a bit to pass each other. A quirk of the French is that if there’s 2 lanes going in the same direction, everyone—and I mean everyone—drives in the right lane. Only when you want to pass someone do you get into the left lane. It’s not rude to pass someone, like it is in the US. It is rude, however, to keep driving in the left lane, especially if you’re not passing anyone. 

We made it to our hotel in Mont St. Michel by noon, but our rooms weren’t ready. Even though the rain had cleared up, right when you get out of the car, you feel like the wind’s gonna take you away. That’s how windy it is here.

View of the marshes from the top of the abbey

I had booked the hotel because it was supposed to be validated free parking at the Mont St. Michel’s parking lots, but when I checked in, they said that is not the case anymore. WTF?! I only booked your hotel because of the free parking! Grrr…

Since our rooms weren’t ready, we dropped off our luggage and drove to the very expensive parking lots where there’s a free shuttle to take you to the base of Mont St. Michel. This is a relatively new addition to the area, as they got rid of the old parking lot (that used to be free). But the old parking lot was situated in a way that stopped the flow of water to Mont St. Michel, and the French government was concerned that over time, the marshes around here would dry up, and you would not get the panoramic island view of the abbey of old.

Climbing the many, many steps (at least 10 stories!) to the abbey at the top of the mountain

After we got off the shuttle, it’s a fight to the gates of Mont St. Michel. The wind was so strong, I swear we were walking sideways. The entire island is pretty walkable within 30 minutes (it’s free parking if you only stay there for less than 2 hours). There’s a lot of stairs to go up to the top of the abbey and I was huffing and puffing by the time I reached the top. Dad and I wanted to go into the abbey, but once Mom heard it was 9 euros per person, she said screw that. So she and Angel went shopping while Dad and I went in. As it was converted into a prison during the French Revolution, and the monks were booted out of the abbey, the abbey fell into disrepair, as there wasn’t anyone who cared about the upkeep of the buildings. So a lot of the floors and windows, while they look old, are actually quite new, thanks to restoration efforts. Indeed, a whole wall was under restoration during our visit.

The abbey was originally built in the 700s by a monk named Aubert. St. Michael came to him in a dream, ordering a church to be built on the island. Aubert ignored this dream, and legend has it that St. Michael came to him again, and again, and finally stuck a finger through his skull. He got the picture after that, and proceeded to construct the abbey. It was burnt down once by fire, and rebuilt in the Gothic architectural style. The tour guide (English tours at 1pm and 3pm—we were lucky, as we had no idea there was a free tour included with the ticket, and we went in at 2:30pm) pointed out a room where you can see the Roman circular arches (the earlier period) and the vaulted, pointy Gothic arches side-by-side—this room, she said, might be the first example of Gothic architecture in all of Europe:

A lot of the buildings up in the abbey are finished with wooden roofs, to lighten the load structurally. Another architectural feature unique to the abbey is the interspersed columns in the cloister (where monks used to pray). This helped alleviate the weight of the structure. The tour guide said that the monks used to walk really slowly (perhaps because the wind is so harsh?), so the columns served as stair rails for them to hold onto. 

Cloister in the middle of the abbey where the monks used to pray

The abbey was also used as a fortress during the Hundred Years’ War. Several dozen knights came to defend the abbey from English forces, and to this day, the abbey has never been successfully breached, due to its strategic location in the marshes. The tides are dangerous, even in low tide. They warn of tourists attempting the crossing and drowning every year. For several hundred years, people either got to the island by boat or just simply crossing the marshes on foot during low tide. I think in the future, when the dam and causeway are “officially” opened (as in, construction stops), they’ll start forbidding people to venture out into the marshes.

Since pilgrimages to the abbey draws thousands per year, the monks saved all the meat (well, four-legged animals) for these weary travelers. And the poor. So the monks themselves weren’t allowed to eat meat. Talk about selfless.

It was considered an honor for a monk to be sent here to serve, and many monks came from the families of the nobility or well-to-do. However, because it’s so windy here and cold (there’s a lot of stained glass windows now, but the stained glass was put in later. So they were originally portals without glass! Yikes! How cold is that!), the life expectancy of these monks averaged 40 years. Tuberculosis and pneumonia were common causes of death.

The tour guide also took us to these ginormous wooden wheels, constructed in the times of the French Revolution, when the abbey was made into a prison. These wooden wheels were used to pull up supplies from the base of the mountain—and you needed human beings to get into the spokes to turn the wheel. Kinda like a human-sized hamster wheel. Yup, built just for Angel.

We went into the City of Books, which is a huge, cavernous room where the monks used to study the whole day. During summertime, the sun sets at around 10pm, so the window needed to be big to let in a lot of light for their studying. The window is not only big, but faces west, to maximize light. There are only 3 fireplaces in the whole abbey—2 in the kitchen, to cook with, and 1 in this room. 

City of Books

The monks lived an austere life, so they weren’t allowed fireplaces in their dormitories. In the City of Books, the monks would read, copy (as there were no printing presses at the time, so they are the printing presses, basically), and draw “Illustrations.” Illustrations are the big, decorous block letters at the beginning of each chapter in medieval books (think Sleeping Beauty or Beauty and the Beast). Back then, they didn’t have color pencils or paint, so they’d color the illustrations with various spices…and sometimes blood.

This is a fresco dating from the 13th century. There was a fire and the other half was lost, never to be found. It tells the story (a famous English poem) about the 3 dead and 3 living:

This fresco is of the 3 dead. The missing one supposedly details the 3 living.

Back then, there was no stained glass in the windows. It was just wind blowing through the arched holes:

Can you imagine how cold it'd be to have windows with no glass?!

I had read on many travel forums that the omelet at Mere Poulard is not to be missed (although some Americans complained about how runny the omelet was. :T We are in France after all, and should adapt to their tastes, I guess?) We passed by the restaurant—hard not to miss, as it’s the first thing you see when you enter the gates. Mere Poulard grew up as a simple chambermaid and had no education. But she was smart, and seeing all these weary pilgrims trekking into Mont St. Michel, she decided to start selling omelets to these hungry travelers. Her omelets grew famous, the business expanded, and now the Mere Poulard brand sells touristy trinkets, caramels, cookies. There’s two (or three?) of the Mere Poulard restaurants in Mont St. Michel, as well as a hotel Mere Poulard. Yes, you can stay overnight in Mont St. Michel. During summer, they have nightly concerts and I hear it’s lovely and very scenic.

Since we are here though, and Normandy is known for their butter, Angel wanted to try their butter cookies:

Even if it is Mere Poulard...

The cookies even have Mont St. Michel stamped on it (Angel's holding it vertically). Mont St. Michel is overrun with souvenir shops these days, so if you like shopping, that could potentially take you the whole day.

Gate at the base of Mont St. Michel

We had a can of Leader Price foie gras with a baguette for dinner, as Mere Poulard was just too crazy expensive for our price range. The Leader Price brand is actually really tasty! And half the price of Carrefour’s brand of foie gras!