1300 Years in Normandy

October 12, 2009 at 10:00 am · Filed under france, international travel, tourism, travel, Uncategorized and tagged: mont saint michel, normandy, travel writing

By Linda Tancs

The motto of WASPs (Women Air Force Service Pilots) was “We live in the wind and the sand, and our eyes are on the stars.” That could equally apply to France’s Mont Saint Michel (Saint Michael’s Mount), a hauntingly beautiful rocky expanse between Normandy and Brittany whose granite apex hosts the Benedictine abbey started there in the 10th century. The worship of Saint Michael there, however, dates back to the year 708, making this holy site more than 1300 years old. As if that weren’t enough to distinguish it, the Mount is also one of the first locales to obtain a UNESCO World Heritage listing. The village lying beneath the abbey, ringed by a fortress, is built on sand but can withstand the constant assault of the highest tides in Europe. Its ebb and flow, described by Victor Hugo as being “à la vitesse d’un cheval au galop” (“as swift as a galloping horse”) is striking and quite a tourist draw. Take it all in at the North Tower of these medieval ramparts.

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