Mont Saint Michel
Wednesday, 13th July 2005 by Alex Turnbull
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).
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.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
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!
Did you guys notice how far the tide goes on this shot!?
Magical place…
And here’s the British version of it, St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall: View Placemark
Sadly not yet very high resolution. Here, the causeway is still covered at high tide.
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
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.
I never knew Aphex Twin had that song… thank you my learned friend
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
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.