Brook & Max overlooking the tidal basin
We've just returned from our weekend trip to Mont Saint Michel. What an amazing place! The Mont is a tiny island in an enormous tidal basin that is connected to the mainland by a causeway (it used to be a tidal island that was only accessible at low tide, now the causeway is permanent). We learned that the tides here are the largest in Europe, and at certain times each month, the water can rush 15 kilometers from low to high tide in only 4 1/2 hours - moving as fast as a galloping horse! I wish we could have seen this... Anyway, at the very top is a millennium-old abbey. The place is so unique that I am including a quick summary of its history from Let's Go France 2008 (if you already know this or don't really care, just skip the next paragraph):
"Legend holds that the Baie de St-Michel was created by a giant wave that carved three islands, one of which was so appealing that heaven wanted a piece of it. In AD 708, Archangel Michael supposedly appeared to St-Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, and asked him to build a place of worship on the island. The bishop proved rather unresponsive; Michael reportedly had to put a flaming finger through Aubert skull before the bishop heeded his vision and erected the first small church on the Mont's summit. In the 10th century, a Benedictine abbey was established on the Mont, and the four crypts supporting the abbey church were built. To the French pilgrims, the Mont soon became a spiritual destination as important as Rome and Jerusalem. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Mont-St-Michel was fortified against a 30-year English attack. When church property was appropriated wholesale in the French Revolution, the Benedictines were driven out of Mont-St-Michel; going from heaven to hell, the abbey became a penitentiary, housing around 700 political prisoners. Finally, in 1863 the abbey closed as a prison and Mont-St-Michel was classified as a national monument. Today, the abbey is again home to a small community of monks - no longer Benedictines, but rather Brothers and Sisters of Jerusalem."
We stayed in a town nearby called Granville - childhood home of none other than Christian Dior (we are SO chic these days!). Granville is a tiny pennisula that has a big harbor and marina, and lots of beaches. Very beautiful!
