Mont-Saint-Michel
Mont-Saint-Michel
Guide of Manche
Guide of Manche
Travel Guide > France > Lower Normandy > Manche > Mont-Saint-Michel
"Merveille de l'Occident" (Western Marvel) and pilgrimage centre since the Middle Age, the Mont-Saint-Michel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts visitors from the whole world. Dedicated to Saint-Michel in 708, the mount is the most visited site in France today. Rising in the middle of a magnificent wild bay, the Mont-Saint-Michel arouses delight and admiration, with its perched abbey at the top of the rocky island and its medieval town surrounded by ramparts. Once passed the fortified doors marking the entrance of the village, walkers and pilgrims discover at first the Grande-Rue main street, its old granite residences, its museums and its souvenirs shops. In this lively street, the Mère Poulard restaurant is a well-known place renowned for its omelets. After climbing the hillside of Grande-Rue as well as the Grand Degré stair leading to the sanctuary, the visit of the abbey can commence. Dominated by the tower of its abbey church, the Benedictine abbey of the Mont-Saint-Michel offers a magnificent variety of architecture ranging from the XIth to the XVIth century. The Romanesque abbey church of the XIth century; the monks promenoir; the Merveille, a set of six rooms on three levels that are the dining hall, the Hosts room, the aumônerie, the cloister, the Knights room and the storeroom, all constituting a remarkable testimony of religious art.
After the visit, a stroll on the covered way situated at the foot of the abbey is imperative. From there, the view of the residences of the medieval town and the bay is splendid.
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