Our next destination was a stunner.

We headed away from the World War Two history and set a course for Mont-Saint-Michel, a French monastery which is a quite famous tourist attraction and has appeared in many photos. Driving towards the west coast, we turned a bend then saw a huge castle like structure rising up, only faintly outlined due to its distance away, and we were quite over-awed already! The closer we got though, the more alarmed we became at the traffic and the realization that we had again joined the busy roads of the French on holidays. Large 6 berth Motorhomes were EVERYWHERE.  

The 8th century Mont-Saint-Michel is a monastery has a commanding position on a rock just off the coast. A causeway goes out to it, and this causeway was blocked for the 4 kilomteres of its length by mostly motorhomes. Nearby a huge field had been taken over for motorhome parking and it seemed like around 2,000 were jammed in with no space between and they were all planning to stay the night.

We loved the view of the monastery and as it was now mid-afternoon, we thought about accommodation. Given the frantic tourist over population a miracle occurred and we secured the last affordable room in town, which, as a bonus, had a laundromat. We set about sorting our photos, getting laundry done, and writing our stories. 

As the sun headed down the sky, we set off on foot to travel the causeway arriving close to the monastery just as the sun was setting. We then ventured inside and found a whole city of restaurants, accommodation (very expensive!) and souvenir shops. We settled on an icecream and wandered around the cobblestone streets, loving every minute of our choice to stay for the evening and truly enjoy the different faces of Mont-Saint-Michel.


Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay is UNESCO World Heritage listed.