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Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Mont Saint Michel

Wednesday, 13th July 2005 by Alex

This is the small islet of Mont Saint Michel, just off the north coast of France. It is home to a Benedictine Abbey and steepled church, which were built between the 11th and 16th centuries, and was connected to the mainland via a thin natural land bridge. Before modernization the bridge was covered at high tide and revealed at low tide.

These days the land bridge has become a causeway, which has unfortunately contributed towards a general silting-up of the bay. To prevent the water from disappearing completely, there are plans afoot to replace the causeway with a bridge (Wikipedia page).

Mont St. Michel

Thanks: Tony, Mark D, Jef Poskanzer, Jerome, Holly Helterhoff, Tim, ray hollis, Mathieu, David Patrick, Christophe Roudet, Patrick R, Marc, Gwen, Marc Armstrong and Gabriel.

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Locations: France / Categories: , , ,

9 Responses to 'Mont Saint Michel'

  1. 1. Frank Trimborn says: July 14th, 2005 at 2:49 am

    I always loved seeing pictures of Mont St. Michele when I had French classes in high school - 45 years ago! It’s beautiful to behold!

  2. 2. Dom says: July 14th, 2005 at 8:55 am

    Did you guys notice how far the tide goes on this shot!?

  3. 3. xb1 says: July 14th, 2005 at 8:57 am

    Magical place…

  4. 4. Jonathan says: July 14th, 2005 at 2:50 pm

    And here’s the British version of it, St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall:
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    Sadly not yet very high resolution. Here, the causeway is still covered at high tide.

  5. 5. Otis McGrover says: July 14th, 2005 at 8:25 pm

    And here’s the techno song that combines both mount st michel and st michael’s mount:

    http://www.last.fm/music/Aphex+Twin/_/Mt+Saint+Michel+++Saint+Michaels+Mount

  6. 6. Oli says: July 15th, 2005 at 2:19 pm

    I have been there in Summer 2002. It’s quite a tourist attraction and you’ve really got the feeling like beeing in Disneyland. Poor actually, if you remember that it’s still an ‘active’ monastery with monks living there; just a small part is restricted for tourists and reserved for them only. Apart of that, the whole ‘island’ is full of souvenir shops and candy stores and such stuff.

  7. 7. Birdman of Malkatraz says: July 15th, 2005 at 2:29 pm

    I never knew Aphex Twin had that song… thank you my learned friend

  8. 8. mike says: July 11th, 2006 at 12:19 am

    i had the fortune of visiting this place as a kid with my school and its simply amazingly beautiful,

    i seem to remember it being very steep though lol

  9. 9. Dawn Vick says: October 5th, 2006 at 4:06 pm

    I visited the island when I was a teenager and I still have very vivid
    memories. This was a magical place where history stood before me.

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