The Mont-Saint-Michel is a rock that thinks it is a cathedral. It rises from a flat bay of sand and silt on the border between Normandy and Brittany, crowned by an abbey whose spire is topped by a golden statue of the Archangel Michael. According to the old story, the archangel appeared to a bishop of Avranches in the early eighth century and told him to build a sanctuary on the rock, and Benedictine monks settled there in the tenth century. The abbey that grew over the next centuries became one of the great pilgrimage sites of medieval Europe.
The bay is the real star. The tides here are among the biggest in Europe, with a difference of up to fourteen metres between low and high water, and when the sea comes in at spring tides, it advances across the flats faster than a person can comfortably walk. The ground is soft, with patches of quicksand, and crossing it on foot is something to do only with a guide. The causeway that once connected the rock to the mainland was replaced by a bridge in 2014, and the river Couesnon now flows more freely around the base.
Cars and motorcycles are kept away from the island itself, parked at a large lot on the mainland, and shuttles carry visitors to the entrance. The nearest small village, Roz-sur-Couesnon, is about eight kilometres away, and Avranches, the nearest larger town, is thirteen. Fuel is best found at Avranches or Pontorson, and it is wise to top up before you arrive.
The area around is flat and open, with marshy meadows where salt-grazed lamb grazes, and the road along the bay offers wide views and a constant wind. Come early or late to avoid the crowds, and the place changes: the lanes empty, the light goes pink on the walls, and the sea breathes in and out beyond the sand. It is a long way from the corners of the Alps, but the sense of occasion is remarkable.