Entre l'eau et Ciel

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Mont Saint-Michel

Beginning in the 8th century as a monastery on a tidal island in the North of France, honored as a UNESCO world heritage site, there really isn't anywhere else in the world quiet like Mont Saint Michel. Rising above the tidal plains, one can see why the arch-angle would have commanded such a place to be built all those years ago, as the legend goes. It was totally worth burning a hole in the bishops skull with his finger to get it done, if the myth is to be believed. A little extreme, but I guess those angles did what they had to to get those monks to listen to them, eh?

Though waking up at 5:45 is never easy, it can always be done when there’s something good to wake up for, like Christmas or Snowboarding, and so the idea of Mount Saint Michel got me out of bed, dressed, and on the metro at that ungodly hour. Our MICEFA program had told us the bus would be leaving promptly at 7am, no exceptions, no waiting, but of course we didn’t get on the road until nearly 7:30 as people continued to show up and we continued to wait. At least there was time for me to run to the bakery and get a hot-and-fresh pain-au-chocolat just from the oven. Four hours of stuffy-noisy-bus-ride later, and we were there.

Driving up to it is really quite stunning, one sees fields of quaint little French farms, sheep grazing, stone cottages, and then there is Saint Michel, rising suddenly and stunningly above the fields and sea. My neck hurt as I tried to follow it through the windows as our bus navigated the small winding roads that led to it. Of course there were herds of tourists, tour busses parked in long rows in the lot below like large lazy ungulates grazing on the masses of people. We pushed our way past and through the gates into the medieval town. Well, the buildings and streets are medieval, but all the shops and restaurants are modern and just like those you find at any other tourist destination in the world, except that these postcards had Mt. St. Michel on them.

We were supposed to get a tour of the monastery, but as we waited for people in Paris, we arrived late and didn't get it. But that's ok, because we got to go in anyways and instead of a guided tour we got to wander and explore on our own, which I much preferred to being guided and herded through. I might not have learned too much about the history, but I got to take pictures and pause in hidden little corners and make-up my own stories of what might have happened in these ancient halls. After walking through a brief entrance with brochures and models of what the monastery looked like at different periods of time, one comes out onto a grand veranda overlooking the tidal plane below. We couldn't have wished for a better day, the clouds and the sky were just stunning. I preferred it to full sun, and you can see the pictures, it really was just breathtaking. After soaking in the view that nuns have been enjoying for centuries, we made our way indoors, through colonnades, room after high-ceilinged room, and winding darkened stairways. Everything about the monastery is magical and mysterious, despite the hundreds of other tourists walking through the ancient halls with you. I must admit, if I could change one thing about the day I would have wanted a photographer. There were just so many vistas and neat little corners, the only thing that would be better than a picture of the architecture would be a picture of ME with the architecture. It made me miss Mexico, when I traveled with Mario, who not only liked taking pictures and was good at it, but liked taking pictures of ME with it all. That is probably my best-documented trip I have ever taken, and so many cute pictures of me! Thank you for that Mario, now more about Mt. St. Michel!
After I had made my way through the monastery (at this point the group had dissolved as everyone wandered through, soaking it up at their own pace) I met back up with Micheal, Shelby, Nayeli and the rest of the California crew. As this was a MICEFA trip, there were students from other states there as well, but they just weren't as cool as us Californians. I mean, I tried to give them a chance on the bus ride there, but really, no one develops social skills like Californians! No, the other students were fine, we had just been pre-segregated by MICEFA into our state groups for the Preparatory Language Program classes in September, and we've stuck with the same groups ever since, habit-forming creatures as we are. Well, my group and I found a little restaurant where we could sit on the balcony and have a meal. I guess I am really quiet habituated to Paris prices, because even though we were in an isolated tourists haven, where prices are naturally higher than in real towns, I wasn't shocked by anything and was actually surprised to feel that I could afford to eat there. So I ate, and then went on the post-card hunt. At 4:30 we were corralled back onto the bus and driven back to Paris, arriving a little after 9:30 back in the city after many rousing alphabet word games in the back of the bus, of which I reigned triumphant, but what else do you expect form a Linguistics major in her native tongue? That, and I am no stranger to road-trip games, going back and forth across America with siblings, but that's another story.
I went out with everyone when we got back to town for a while, getting VIP-style access to a club in Pigalle thanks to Nicole's knowing her way around the 'hood, but turned in before the metro closed so I would have enough energy for tomorrow's Guinguette. So many wonderful things to see and do here, I'm wondering if a year will be long enough...

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Photos

Mont Saint Michel
There it is.

The entrance
Coming up to the entrance of the island.

Here's the church...
and here is the steeple.

The flood plains.
This is while the tide is out, but when it comes in most of this is underwater.

Tourists in a row
They color-coordinated with the surroundings, I don't know who they are but I thought it looked nice.

Inner courtyard
You can just imagine the nuns walking around here way back in the day.

And above all...
St. Michel, in gold, watching over everything atop his steeple.

Ornamentation
Look at the carving above the arches, every detail of this place is absolutely amazing.