Mont Saint-Michel from A to Z: map, hotels, attractions, restaurants, entertainment. Shopping, shops. Photos and reviews about Mont Saint-Michel.
Mont Saint-Michel occupies a special place among not only French, but also world sights. The Louvre has many worthy competitors in different countries, the beaches of Nice, the quarters of Montmartre and even the Eiffel Tower you can find analogues - but Mont-Saint-Michel is absolutely unique.
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
There is simply no rival in the world to a lonely mountain in the middle of a perfectly flat plain; a mountain crowned with a harsh monastery and surrounded by impregnable walls; a mountain whose slopes have sheltered an entire medieval city with tiny winding streets; a mountain that the highest tides in Europe turn into an impregnable island twice a day, and the surrounding plain into a raging ocean. The path to it is not easy, but from year to year millions of people flock here to feel at least for a few hours a part in a genuine miracle.
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
UNESCO has included Mont Saint-Michel in the List of World Heritage Sites, guidebooks proudly call it "the eighth wonder of the world", and the French themselves call their favorite attraction simply the Mountain.
How to get to Mont Saint-Michel
The easiest and most economical way to get to Mont Saint-Michel is by taking a direct bus from Paris. On Saturdays and Sundays, Flixbus buses leave from La Defense in the early morning and return to the capital in the late evening. The journey takes about 5 hours, passengers are delivered directly to the walls of Mont Saint-Michel.
On weekdays, getting to the Mountain is a little more difficult: first you need to take the TGV high-speed train at Montparnasse train station, get to Rennes, and then change to a bus of the local Keolys network. A combined train-bus ticket can be bought at the office. website of the company SNCF, which is in charge of all railways in France. Travel time is comparable to the bus option, and you will have to pay at least 50 EUR for a one-way ticket.
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
The third way to get to Mont Saint-Michel from Paris can be safely attributed to exotic: at the Rennes railway station, you need to change to a local train to the town of Pontorson, and then take a minibus to Mont Saint-Michel (travel time is about 20 minutes, ticket price 2.50 EUR ). For those who travel to Mont Saint-Michel from Normandy, this method is quite acceptable: there are several trains daily from Rouen to Pontorson.
You can also get to Mont Saint-Michel by car - the road from Paris on the A13 toll motorway takes about 4 hours and costs 15 EUR. The way through Alençon on the free N10 highway is shorter in terms of mileage, but longer in time and greatly tires the driver - the road runs through many towns with narrow intersections, pedestrian crossings and frequent speed limits of up to 50 km / h.
A bit of History
In Gallo-Roman times, on the site of the present Gulf of Saint-Michel, a dense forest was rustling, and the future Mountain was a low hill. The first Christian hermits chose it as a place of solitude and prayer. Local residents carried food to the ascetics, and in due time buried their remains. The previously unnamed hill began to be called the Grave Mountain. By the 7th century, the ocean swallowed up the land, and the Mountain acquired its modern shape, and in 709 the first monastery was founded on the top.
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| Mont Saint-Michel |
Over the centuries, it has grown, changed owners several times, survived many wars and sieges, once it was burned to the ground and rebuilt stone by stone - until it was closed during the French Revolution. The monks were expelled, their cells were turned into chambers for political prisoners. The darkest period of Mont Saint-Michel lasted almost 100 years, and only at the end of the 19th century, the prison was closed, and Mont Saint-Michel received the status of a national museum.
Mont Saint-Michel Accommodation
Local hotels are clearly divided into two groups: the first is located inside the city fortifications (intra muros), the second is located in the town of La Caserne in the immediate vicinity of Mont Saint-Michel. The rooms in the hotels are cramped, from the bottom of the restaurants you can hear not the most pleasant smells, you will have to get to your accommodation first by minibus, and then walk up the tourist-packed Grande Rue. But - the proximity to all the attractions, the opportunity to watch the tide from the "own" windows are worth it.
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Hotels in La Caserne are designed in our time, there is a higher level of comfort at affordable prices - with early booking a room in a 2 * hotel will cost only 55 EUR. The advantages of an overnight stay at La Caserne include convenient hotel parking, a breathtaking view of Mont Saint-Michel at night, and a vibrant and varied nightlife.