Day-4 in France my wife and I have checked into the Mercure hotel near Le Mont-St-Michel Abbey. I wake up in the morning to see dark grey skies and continuous drizzle of rain. Bad weather to walk down the 2.5 km long stretch from the hotel to the Abbey, but I have no choice, as we’re here for one day only. After a hearty breakfast at "Le Pre Sale" restaurant, out come the umbrellas, and we begin our walk to the Abbey. Soon the rain starts coming in gusts, and I turn back to see a Peugeot sedan approaching. I’m pretty sure no one would give a lift to a foreign couple on a dark and rainy day like this, but I still make the universally accepted sign with my thumb asking for a lift. We’re in luck, the car stops, and a French couple, who cant speak a word of English, give us a lift. We were really grateful to this helpful couple; without their help, we would have been walking in the rain for at least 20 minutes. We thanked the couple with heartfelt "merci beaucoup’s", when we reached the Abbey.
The Abbey is built on a finger of land jutting out into the sea. The place is completely surrounded by marshland. Apparently, the sheep that roam this marshland are a culinary delicacy!
We bought entry tickets to the place, and also purchased the audio guide which was very informative about the history of the place. The history dates back to 708 AD, when Bishop Aubrey built a sanctuary in honour of the Archangel, Saint Michael at the top of a huge granite rock known as Mount Tombe. The audio guide explains that Mont Tombe does not imply “tomb”, but is Latin for “high”. The Abbey, as it stands today, was built in later 10th to 14th centuries. By the 14th century, a village had settled at the foot of the Abbey, and this village is still seen today, frozen in time (except for the electric lights & souvenir shops, of course).
The audio guide took us through the main chapel, cloisters, the monk’s dining hall, guest halls and other interesting chambers inside the Abbey.
What is not mentioned though, in the audio guide is the legend that Saint Michael appeared in the dreams of Bishop Aubrey, and asked him to build a sanctuary at this particular spot. When the Bishop ignored these dreams, Saint Michael, angered, burnt a hole in the Bishop’s head with his finger. I got this legend from the wikipedia entry for Mont St-Michel, and there may be a sculpture inside the Abbey trying to depict this legend. Although the sculpture is a bit ruined, but to me, it seemed to be depicting the legend of Saint Michael burning
a hole in the Bishop’s head.
a hole in the Bishop’s head.
It takes about an hour to explore the place. We returned the audio guides, and started walking back by around 11:15 AM. There was a return bus to Rennes due in 15 minutes, and we were hoping we could get a lift back as well. And we did! This time an old French lady in a small car stopped for us. She spoke English, and we had a pleasant conversation on the way back. I must say the people in this place are really nice.
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