revwaltp: June 29 - Mont St Michel, France

First, let me tell you my story about Mont St Michel. 34 years ago a friend of mine told me about taking some time off between college and his first job. It was a pilgrimage of sorts and he told me about Mont St Michel where he got back in touch with a spiritual side to his life. I remember him telling me about this mystical island that for half the day is accessible by the sands that you can walk over to get to it, but the other half of the day, when the tide comes in, it is completely isolated surrounded by the sea. I remember seeing pictures that he showed me. Later on, I looked it up; first, at the library where you needed to do such research (way back when) and more recently (like the past 20+ years) on the internet. I was drawn to it and have wanted to go there for more than half of my life. A few months ago, I told him that I was finally going to Mont St. Michel and it was he who had inspired me to go there. He flat out said, “Nice, but I’ve never been there.” What?!? He had indeed gone on a pilgrimage, but he’d gone to Iona. I don’t remember that name, at all. In fact, it wasn’t until long after seminary that I’d even heard about Iona. I’ll never know now who put the buzz in my head to go to Mont St Michel and I probably never will. Nonetheless, I’ve wanted to come here for more than half of my life. And it didn’t disappoint!

I had arranged to stay the night at the only AirBnB on the Mont - I’ll talk about that in a minute. But I was also warned that it would be extremely difficult to carry any luggage. That it was best to come with as little as possible; perhaps just an overnight bag. I had read this suggestion by many others on-line as well. I travel pretty lightly considering I’m here for several months, but what I have is still cumbersome. In Bayeux, I had asked if there was anyplace to store my luggage. The woman at the Bayeux Visitor’s Center told me that the train station had luggage storage. I went extra early to the train station to inquire about luggage storage - there is none. So, I did an online search to see if there were any places that stored luggage. I found one in the next town over - Caen. I quickly hopped on the next train to Caen and in 18 minutes was there, walked to the address given and found out that it was a retail shop that only SOLD luggage. I inquired at several places to see if anyone knew of a place for me to store the luggage. I finally went to a car rental agency and asked about renting a car for one day to drive to Mont St Michel. At least, I could leave the luggage in the car at the public parking on the mainland. They wanted 300 euros for the day! So much for Plan A, so much for Plan B, what about a Plan C… I looked up cheap hotels in the area and found one almost next door to the car rental place. Checked in and thought I’d have to beg for an early check-in, but the guy behind the counter said, “You can have the room now if you want it”. Perfect! Took my luggage up to the room and hopped back on the train for Mont St Michel. All of this occurred before 10am in the morning. By 1:30 I was on a shuttle bus driving up to the Mont.

There it is! There it is! There it is! I was beyond excited!

So, what is so important/interesting about Mont St Michel? It is a monastery with an Abbey at the top dedicated to the Archangel Michael - hence Mont St Michel. At the base of the monastery is a village. Gaul Druids may have worshipped here in the 1st-2nd Centuries when this mountain of rock was called Belenus. A pagan temple was built on the rock during the Roman occupation, but by the 6th Century early Christians had begun worshipping here and called the rock, Mont Tumba. They built two small chapels dedicated to St Stephen and St Symphorian, and a group of hermit monks lived here.

St Aubert was born in 660 and became Bishop of Avranches (a nearby town) in 704. He told the other priests and people of the area that St Michael had appeared to him three times and that God wanted a church built on top of the rock and a modest church was built there in 708. It soon became a major focus of pilgrimage. In the 10th Century a group of Benedictine monks settled in the abbey, and the village grew up below its walls. By the 14th Century, the village had extended all the way to the foot of the rock where the sand meets it. Over those centuries the monastery and abbey were also expanded and rebuilt. Even though it was never built to be a fortress or castle, the English tried to assualt its walls on numerous occasions, especially during the Hundred Years War, but its walls were never breached. As a result, the Mont became a symbol of national identity for the French. After the French Revolution in the late 1700’s, the monastery and abbey were vacated and the abbey was used as a prison, housing upwards of 11,000 prisoners, until 1863. It was decommissioned as a prison and in 1874, it underwent major restorations. In the 1960’s a new Jerusalem group of Catholic monks came to live on the Mont and returned worship and a spiritual focus to the site. And in 1979, Mont St Michel has been listed as a World Heritage UNESCO site. Due to its ancient beginnings, its use as a prison, and the absence of a religious component for so many years has left the Abbey in pretty much the same condition as she had been during the Middle Ages and is in stark contrast to the glitz and glamour of much of Catholicisms later Cathedrals.

There are a zillion steps that go everywhere - up, down, and round-a-bout! I walked them all into the evening.

The Abbey:

The village at the base of Mont St Michel is full of touristy souvenir shops and restaurants. But, it has been that way since the 8th Century, the only thing that has really changed are the wares that are sold. My AirBnB is in one of the oldest houses on the Mont and is run by a husband and wife. The husband’s family owned the house in the 1700’s and either sold it or lost it (I didn’t quite understand) during the years that the Mont served as a prison. But his family gained the house back over a hundred years ago and has been in the family for the last three generations. There are only 18 full-time residents on the Mont and they are 2 of them. Here are pictures of their house and my lodgings.

The house has a total of 6 floors, but each floor only has one or two large rooms in it. Here are my suite of rooms on the 4th floor.

Across from the house next to the Church of St Peter, the owners have a garden where they raise many vegetables and have three chickens (just like us)!

The penitent first come to St Peter to ask for entrance into heaven, since St Peter supposedly holds the keys to the gate. At the top of the Mont, the penitent continue their pilgrimage by entering the Mont of St Michel who holds the scales of your deeds and ways your worth in heaven.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Church of St Peter. The Church, Monastery, and Abbey are run by a total of 60 monks.

Again, it is quite austere.

At dawn this morning I was up to watch the sunrise. There was just a short window of the sun coming up over the horizon, as clouds quickly set in and obscures any further sunrise shots. But, what I got was beautiful. As you can see in the photos, the tide is just beginning to become high tide again and the area is mostly covered in only sand.