Brittany's Emerald Coast to Mont St. Michel

Friday, October 10, 2014

The distance from St. Malo to Mont St. Michel is short, but we took our time, stopping several places along a coastal drive which offered not just sea views but lush agricultural scenes.

Pointe du Grouin sits high above the Channel and is the site of a coastal monitoring, signal, and rescue station.  There were several short trails that afforded wonderful vistas of water, rocks, sky, kayaks and small boats.  This point marks the beginning of what is known as the Emerald Coast, which borders both Brittany and Normandy, and it made a memorable stop.

Cancale is a small town brimming with restaurants and seaside stalls featuring the oysters for which it is renown.  We bought a dozen from a vendor who opened them for us and we sat on a bench squeezing lemons over them, slurping them down, and tossing the shells into the water.  Messy and memorable!

As we traveled farther along the Bay of St. Michel, we began to see Mont St. Michel looming in the distance. We arrived at the parking area on the mainland that had been designated by our hotel and took the free shuttle bus to the island.  Cars are no longer allowed on the causeway, which is soon to be demolished in hopes of reversing some of the environmental damage that has been done by the accumulation of silt that threatens the island.  The Bay of Mont St. Michel is very large, has dramatic tides, and stretches from Brittany to Normandy, each of which has claimed the Mont over the course of history.  Currently (no pun intended!) the island is in Normandy, and they show no signs of giving it up!

After walking uphill and checking in to our hotel on the island's main (and only) "street", we headed up and up and farther up the rock to the famous Abbey.  We were fortunate to have arrived in time to take one of the day's two English language tours, which we greatly enjoyed.  The original Abbey dates from the eighth century, but has been superseded by two other edifices since.  The style of the current Abbey contains elements of both Romanesque and the later Gothic architecture, and is built above an older church and three other crypts built to supply a level "base" for construction on this very vertical island.  Our tour took us up and down stairs, indoors and out, and into both dark underground spaces and enormous light-filled rooms.  Though Benedictines lived and worked here for over 1,000 years, in 2001 another order of monks took over; it remains an active monastic community.

By the time we left the Abbey, the daytime crowds had diminished greatly; when we ventured out for dinner, most of the shops and restaurants were closed and it was quiet, indeed.  As I write, it's getting dark, and Tom is hoping for some good photos of the flood-lit Abbey, which looms right above the entrance to our hotel.