During my first autumn trip to Paris, which I wrote about earlier, I was lucky enough to visit one of the most photogenic and fabulous places in France— the castle Mont Saint Michel. This fortress island, as if descended from the pages of a medieval legend, impresses with its architecture, dramatic landscapes and a special, almost mystical atmosphere.
Mont Saint-Michel Castle is located on a small rocky island in the Normandy region, 360 kilometers west of Paris. Mont Saint-Michel stands out sharply from the surrounding bay area, as it rises above the flat coast by almost 78.8 m. Behind the main gate is the main street with old houses, which contain either hotels and restaurants, or souvenir shops. Climbing the narrow stairs along the fortress wall, you can reach the main attraction here — the Abbey of Saint-Michel, located at the very top of the island. The year of foundation is 709.
As for me, I saw his picture for the first time about five years ago, and at first, to be honest, I thought it was some kind of non-existent castle from a movie like “The Lord of the Rings”. But then, after digging into Wikipedia, I realized that it was real. That’s how the idea was born to visit this place one day.
Someday it will be November 28, 2017. We drove here early in the morning by car from Paris, this is the easiest and cheapest way to get to Mont Saint Michel from the French capital. Travel time is about 4 hours, on high-quality roads in France (partly toll roads).
Since the parking lot and the road directly near the castle may be under water during the rising tide of water from the ocean, the entrance to the castle is closed for tourists. All tourists, without exception, go to special paid parking 1.5 km from the castle and leave their cars there. The tourists then board a free shuttle (a large bus powered by electricity and often running a short distance), which takes them to the castle. More precisely, almost to it – it stops not at the gate of Mont Saint-Michel, but about 400 meters from the castle, and from there everyone walks.
We parked the car in a special parking lot for the guests of the local hotels, it is also paid,
and went to the shuttle.
If you book a hotel on the castle grounds, you must obtain a code from the hotel to enter the hotel parking area.
After 5 minutes, we were on our way to the castle.
The shuttle dropped everyone off here:
And from here, all tourists walk to the main gate. Even in sunny, warm weather, it can be quite windy and cold. I advise you to have a hat with you, as well as boots, if you want to walk around the castle at low tide. We were without boots, and we couldn’t find a place to buy them. I had to walk there in ordinary shoes – they washed them for a long time afterwards.
We entered the castle grounds through the main gate,
in a couple of minutes we already found our Auberge Saint Pierre hotel,
we checked in and immediately went for a walk around the territory.
We walked along all the paths and stairs that we could find, visited the local cemetery,
went to church
and to souvenir shops.
We had lunch at a restaurant. We went to the post office and sent a postcard to our good friend in Moscow.
Then we went for a walk around the castle. It was a pity, of course, that there were no rubber boots with which to walk away from the castle. It is very windy and, consequently, cold around the castle itself. Our seventh iPhones were the first to “notice” this – they both turned off at the same time, which caused us to return to the room and charge.
In general, time flew by very quickly – it began to get dark. We decided to postpone the visit to the abbey until the morning, and in the evening to walk to the neighboring town, located directly behind the dam.
Hotels, small shops and restaurants are located here, as well as everything around is aimed at tourists. Prices in restaurants are the same as in the castle, in hotels – a little cheaper. The same shuttles run from here to the castle as from the parking lot, and their schedules are posted at bus stops and restaurants.
After visiting the bar here, we took the bus back to the castle.
It was already dark, and the tourists in Mont Saint-Michel could be counted on one hand. Quiet, peaceful and romantic. We walked around the night area, which, by the way, is mostly unlit.
And went to sleep.
In the morning we went to the abbey, which
