Location: Manche department, Lower Normandy Map
Train: to Pontorson, then bus
Abbey
Tel. 02- 33 89 80 00
Open: May- Sep: 9am- 5:30pm, Oct- Apr 9:30am- 5pm, night visits during summer months
Closed: Jan 1, May 1, Nov 1 & 11, Dec 25
Service 12:15 pm Tue- Sun
Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel From May 2 to August 30, open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (last admission at 6 p.m.). September 1 to April 30, open 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (last admission 5 p.m.). visit (without guide): € 9 per adult, free for 18-25 year old citizens of the European Union (€ 5 otherwise) and free for children under 18. - From May 1 to December 25, it is possible to use an audio guide (French, English, Spanish, Italian) for € 4. Mass is celebrated every day except Monday at 12:15 p.m.
Mont-Saint-Michel is a French commune located in the Manche in Normandy.
It takes its name from the rocky islet dedicated to Saint Michel where
the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey stands today.
The architecture of
Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay make it the busiest tourist site in
Normandy and one of the ten busiest in France — the first site after
those of Île-de-France — with nearly two and a half million visitors
each year (3,250,000 in 2006, 2,376,000 in 20183) provoking, as
elsewhere, a reflection on the regulation of tourist flows.
A
statue of Saint Michael placed at the top of the abbey church rises
157.10 meters above the shore. A major element, the abbey and its
outbuildings are classified as historical monuments by list of 1862
(Sixty other constructions being protected later); the islet and the
coastline of the bay have been listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list
since 1979 as well as the Moidrey mill since 2007. In addition, the
mount enjoys a second world recognition as a stage of the Paths of
Compostela in France for "pilgrims from Northern Europe (who) passed
through the Mount when they went to Galicia".
In 2021, the
municipality had 25 inhabitants, called the Montois. The islet of Mont
Saint-Michel has become over time an emblematic element of French
heritage.
In 2023, the village of Mont-Saint-Michel joins the
list of villages labeled Heritage Village, which work to highlight their
material and / or intangible heritage (historical, cultural, natural,
architectural, etc.).
Since April 2012, it is no longer possible to drive to the foot
of Mont- Saint- Michel. A new parking lot has been built on the
mainland (12 € per car) and access to the mountain is done either on
foot via the new footbridge completed in 2014 (about 2.5 km) or via
one of the free shuttles (bus ) or paying (horse-drawn carriages)
which provide a regular connection between 7:30 a.m. and midnight.
However, the parking lot is relatively far (about 800 m) from the
departure point of the shuttles and on arrival, there are still a
few hundred meters to walk to the entrance.
By car
Driving
is probably the easiest and cheapest way to visit Mont Saint-Michel,
although the line at the entrance to the parking lot is often long.
From Caen, take the A84 motorway, exit at exit 34 towards
Saint-Brieuc on the national 175. It is then possible to exit to
join the D43 which allows you to reach the mountain along the coast
and follow the signs that point to Mt. Or, you can leave the 4 lanes
by joining the D80.
From Paris, allow 4 hours by road.
Car park
Mont-Saint-Michel car park from € 4.5 for light
vehicles. - Since the end of the implementation of the Saint-Michel
project, parking is compulsory before arriving in the town of
Mont-Saint-Michel. 4,000 parking spaces are available before
crossing the footbridge, a work of art that connects
Mont-Saint-Michel on foot or by shuttle bus.
Public transport
There is no direct train line between Paris and Mont Saint-Michel,
but it is possible to travel to Pontorson by train and then complete
the journey by bus. The best option is to take the TGV from
Montparnasse station to Rennes or Dol-de-Bretagne. The Rennes -
Mont-Saint-Michel and Dol-de-Bretagne - Mont-Saint-Michel express
line of the regional council takes you to Mont Saint-Michel. Five
round trips are offered during the day and are connected to the TGV
from Paris. Remember to check the train times, they can change. It
happens that out of season, the connection is not assured from
Rennes; check it before you go. Also note that traffic can be very
heavy around the mountain (there is only one road). So it is
possible that you miss your train. During the summer, the wait at
the exit of the mountain can reach an hour or more. The bus stop is
located directly at the “north” exit of Rennes train station, at the
bus station on the right. In Dol-de-Bretagne, the bus parks in front
of the station exit.
Keolis Emeraude +33 2 99 26 16 00 -
Information on Rennes - Mont-Saint-Michel - Dol-de-Bretagne bus
timetables and prices.
Count € 15 for a one-way ticket from
Rennes and € 8 from Dol-de-Bretagne. Reductions exist for people
under 26 or over 60 (25% reduction). It is possible to buy tickets
directly on the bus, via SNCF at the same time as the purchase of
your train ticket or at the bus station in Rennes. On arrival, the
bus drops you off at the car park. From there, it is possible to
take the shuttles that connect the parking lot and the entrance to
Mt.
Another option is to take the train to Pontorson -
Mont-Saint-Michel station which is on the Caen - Rennes railway
line. Buses from Pontorson are available and leave several times a
day in accordance with the arrival of trains. Count € 3.2 per trip
(free for children under 4).
By bike
Parking for bicycles
is free and the road from Pontorson to the mountain is not
particularly difficult (beware of the wind though).
By taxi
Taxis are extremely expensive for long journeys, unless you can
share the cost with other travelers. A one-way taxi ride from Mont
Saint-Michel to Rennes costs around € 135. A more economical option
is to take a taxi to Dol de Bretagne and then take the train to
Rennes from where you can reach Paris.
Rennes Taxi +33 7 87
91 71 49 100 € day / 150 € night or Sunday and public holidays. -
Taxi company providing the Rennes - Mont-Saint-Michel route.
The only way to get around inside the mountain is on foot. There are two gates in the walled city. The Porte de l'Avancée, the main gate at the end of the causeway, leads onto the Grande Rue which mainly contains souvenir and tourist shops as well as restaurants and cafes. Climb the stairs to reach the ramparts which are a little less crowded and which offer a beautiful view of the bay. The less used Eschaugette gate to the left of the main entrance is the quietest of the roads. All the routes converge towards the abbey at the top of the island.
We enter the citadel through three successive doors :
those of the
Advance which opens on the strikes and the sea. It opens onto the
courtyard of the Advance and consists of a carriage door and a
pedestrian door. The pilgrims who used it were controlled by the guards
and then could quench their thirst, at the corner of the courtyard
staircase, in the drinking water fountain whose basin is shaped like a
scallop shell. The courtyard of the Advance which forms a triangular
space (traced which conceals it from the shots fired from the access
road), was laid out in 1530 by Lieutenant Gabriel du Puy. Defended by an
elevated walkway and by a half-moon tower flanking the openings of the
next courtyard, this courtyard protected the approaches to the Boulevard
courtyard. The staircase leads to the old guard house to the bourgeois,
granite construction covered in essentes, which now houses the tourist
office of Mont-Saint-Michel. This courtyard exhibits two bombs, called
the "michelettes", respectively 3.64 and 3.53 m long, 0.48 and 0.38 m in
internal diameter, and weighing 2.5 tons, launching projectiles from 75
to 150 kilograms. These two artillery pieces are manufactured by means
of flat iron moats surrounded by fire by collars also made of iron,
solidly fretted. The Mons tradition reports that these cannons were
abandoned by the troops of Thomas de Scales on June 17, 1434 during the
Hundred Years' War and were repatriated intramural as a trophy by the
inhabitants of the Mount who made them the symbol of their independence
;
at the back of the courtyard, the lion's door (reference to this
animal engraved on an escutcheon with the arms of Abbot Robert Jollivet)
opens onto the courtyard of the Boulevard built in 1430 by Louis
d'Estouteville, captain of Mont-Saint-Michel (1424-1433) and governor of
Normandy. This cramped courtyard is occupied by modern
nineteenth-century buildings, including Mother Poulard's restaurant and
the hotel Les Terrasses Poulard, properties of Mother Poulard Group, an
industrial and hotel group that owns almost half of the hotels and
restaurants in the Mont ;
the only entrance to the village
originally, the King's Gate was built around 1415-1420 by Louis
d'Estouteville. Ten years later, it was protected by a barbican now
called cour du Boulevard. Equipped with a harrow, it is preceded by a
drawbridge reconstructed in 1992 by the architect Pierre-André Lablaude
and by a ditch filled with water on high tide days. Above this door is
the King's house, a two-storey apartment that served as housing for the
officer representing the royal power and entrusted by the sovereign to
guard the entrance to the village. This accommodation now houses the
Mons town hall. The rectangular frame located above the carriage door
was formerly decorated by a relief now faded. It represented the coat of
arms of the king, the abbey and the city: two angels supporting the
royal coat of arms with three fleurs-de-lis surmounted by the royal
crown, below two lines of shells placed two by two (reminder of the
Mount, vassal of the King of France) and for support two fish placed in
double wavy fasces (evocation of the waves during the tides)
The
visitor then enters on one level in the Main Street of the village, a
narrow lane only 200 meters long which goes up to the abbey winding
between two rows of restaurants, hotels and shops offering religious
jewelry and many souvenir objects made in China, which earned them to be
designated as the "merchants of the Temple". The explosion of mass
tourism in the 1960s has indeed led the Mons to make this way the most
profitable shopping street in France per square meter by transforming
their houses into shops whose storefronts and architecture refer to a
medieval and historical imagination rebuilt and reinterpreted : the
tourist site which attracts 2.5 to 3.5 million visitors a year has
become a source of juicy and coveted profits at the origin of a
commercial rivalry and a legal battle between mayors Patrick Gaulois and
Eric Vannier who both have important commercial interests on the
mountain. Nevertheless, it remains the main artery of the town crowded
with tourists on busy days, which makes the climb to the abbey painful.
According to the journalist Lomig Guillo, "it is the most marked path,
taken by the majority of visitors; however, it has little interest. The
houses that line the street all host souvenir shops, hotels or
restaurants and are more or less recent reconstructions of houses from
the Middle Ages ... The touts of the maritime museum, then those of the
historical museum, encourage tourists on their way to the abbey to visit
these private establishments: it is better to avoid them, their entrance
is expensive and the interest is mediocre ". The houses on the Main
Street date for the most part from the end of the nineteenth century and
the beginning of the twentieth century (corbelled Arcade house,
Artichoke house, Saint-Pierre hotel, pastiche of the Picquerel-Poulard
family built in 1987 opposite the Unicorn hotel, Tiphaine Raguenel's
house (1366) wife of Bertrand du Guesclin which houses the fourth
private museum of the mount and which still belongs to the descendants
of the constable). Near this house, we can see a Romanesque door, the
last vestige of the convent of St. Catherine. The Auberge du Mouton
Blanc with its facade covered with wood species is one of the few houses
that date back to the Middle Ages. The final ascent to the door of the
abbey is carried out by the large degree (staircase) outside. 4 meters
wide, it was barred halfway by a pivoting door, guarded by a watchman
installed in a recess visible on the left. The Mons people call this
staircase the Monteux. The entrance to the abbey is via the "Belle
Chaise", both a porterhouse and a guard house where the abbot rendered
justice and which was built by the abbot Richard Turstin from 1236 to
1264
The ramparts walkway, pierced with machicolations, and flanked
by seven towers, offers many points of view on the bay, as far as the
eye can see, but also on the houses of the village. The residential
blocks are composed of two types of constructions, wooden and stone
houses, but the colorization of the facades does not always make it
possible to differentiate them. The towers are successively and from
bottom to top those of: king's tower, near the entrance; Arcade tower;
Freedom Tower; Low Tower (reduced in the sixteenth century to offer an
esplanade for artillery); Cholet tower ; loop tower and its big bastion
and its postern of the Cat's Hole (inaccessible nowadays) and finally
the North Tower.
A small staircase joins on the right the courtyard
of the crenellated barbican designed at the end of the fourteenth
century during the abbacy of Abbot Pierre Le Roy. Equipped with
surveillance posts pierced with loopholes, it protected the entrance
castle of the abbey consisting of two round towers placed in corbels,
supported by moulded pyramidal lampstands. The courtyard is dominated by
the eastern gable of the Wonder and by the tapered silhouette of the
Corbins tower that flanks it. Under the low arch of the entrance, a very
steep staircase is engaged which is lost in the shadow of the vault,
which leads it to be called "the Abyss". It leads to the Guards' room,
the real entrance to the abbey.
To the west, the second entrance to
the Mountain, with the fortified ensemble of the Fanils consists of the
Fanils gate and ravelin (1530), Fanils tower and Pilette watchtower
(thirteenth century) and the Gabriel tower (1530), formerly surmounted
by a mill.
Sixty-one buildings located on the block are protected
as historical monuments5, by several protection campaigns, carried out
in particular in 1928 and 1934.
The abbey and the National
Monuments Center
The abbey, the ramparts and some buildings,
including the so-called Fanils building, are state property and managed
by the National Monuments Center, an administrative public establishment
placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. In 2011, the
abbey received 1,335,000 visitors. It is the second most visited
national monument, after Notre-Dame de Paris (the Eiffel Tower and the
Palace of Versailles are not managed by the CMN).
Since 2001, the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem have provided a
religious presence all year round. They replace the Benedictine monks,
who have been resettled at the mount since 1966. Since 2008, Brother
Theophane has been the prior of the fraternities, present at the mount
with eleven religious, five brothers and six sisters.
Thus, every
day, the community meets for services in the abbey church or in the
crypt of Our Lady of the Thirty Candles, thus returning the building to
its original destination, to pray and sing the glory of God. Visitors
and pilgrims come to attend the liturgical celebrations. The "Logis
Saint-Abraham", allows, since October 2012, to host retreating pilgrims
within the fraternities. The religious are the tenants of the National
Monuments Center and do not intervene in the management of the abbey.
Since 2021, the fraternities have been working together with priests
from the Saint-Martin community, called by the Bishop of Coutances,
Laurent Le Boulc'h, to serve the sanctuary of the mount and the priory
of Ardevon. Pierre Doat exercises the office of rector of the sanctuary
there and is assisted by two other members of the community to provide
for the needs of the neighboring parishes of Pontorson and Saint-James.
He succeeds Maurice Franc.
Economy
Not far from the Mountain,
the diocese of Coutances and Avranches has made, since 2015, the priory
of Ardevon an additional place of welcome for pilgrims and other
visitors.
The arms of the municipality of Mont-Saint-Michel are blazoned as
follows :
azure with two wavy fess sewn on top and two salmon argent
placed in a bar one on the other, that of the chief bypassed, skewering
on the whole. This blazoning is wrong because at the inquiry it would be
a simplification of an older form (on the right), more complex but not
wrong.
The coat of arms of the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (from
sand to 10 silver shells and head of France) is often wrongly attributed
to the town.
On the mountain
The culinary specialties of Mont-Saint-Michel
are the omelette, whipped to obtain a fluffy and light consistency,
and the salted meadow lamb whose meat comes from the lambs which
graze along the coast. None of the restaurants on the island are
particularly good (and they're way overpriced) so if you decide to
stay on the Mt, be aware that you might prefer to eat in a town in
the surrounding countryside.
The old town at the base of the
abbey has a wide selection of restaurants, cafes and fast food
outlets and other places to eat. Keep in mind that Mont Saint-Michel
is a big tourist trap when it comes to refreshment and travelers'
needs; check a lot of places to find the best price before ordering.
However, don't expect good service.
Local gastronomy
Mont Saint-Michel is located at the mouth of the
Couesnon. On the land side, already old dyke installations have made it
possible until today to gain land on the sea dedicated to agriculture
and livestock (including that of sheep, qualified as pre-salt sheep).
Pre-salted mutton or lamb is thus a local speciality, preferably to be
enjoyed grilled over a wood fire.
A great media activity, in
which the cartoonist Christophe de facto participated with his
Fenouillard family, surrounds the preparation of the omelet of Mother
Poulard, this Burgundian born in Nevers who arrived at twenty-one in
Normandy (named after the restaurant located in the village and renowned
for this specialty). This one is made of eggs and fresh cream,
abundantly beaten into snow in a copper basin with a long whisk on a
special rhythm that passers-by can hear before being cooked in a copper
pan over a wood fire.
For the detailed history of the abbey, see the article Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Originally, it was known as Mont Tombe. There were to be two
oratories, one dedicated to Saint Symphorian, the other to Saint
Stephen, built by hermits in the sixth and seventh centuries, as
reported in the Revelatio ecclesiae sancti Michaelis archangeli
in Monte Tumba. Following this first Christianization of the
Tomb mount, an oratory was erected in honor of the archangel
Saint Michael in 708 (709 for the dedication), as indicated by
the Annals of Mont-Saint-Michel written at the beginning of the
twelfth century. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, installed a
community of twelve canons on the site to serve the sanctuary
and welcome pilgrims. It was at this time that the mount
welcomed, to the east of the rock, the first villagers who were
fleeing the Viking raids. This first habitat must have sheltered
the various trades necessary for the construction of the first
sanctuary: stonemasons, masons, taskmen and carpenters. Then he
had to welcome the lay people in charge of supplying the
religious community. "Despite the numerous reconstructions that
have, little by little, shaped the town that we know today, the
primitive core of the village still remains perceptible: it
corresponds in fact to an area characterized by a relatively
complex parcel organization and a tangle of buildings served by
winding alleys". This is, roughly speaking, the area where the
parish church of Saint-Pierre and its cemetery are located. Most
of the dwellings had to be built of wood and cob.
From
the year 710 and throughout the Middle Ages, the mount was
commonly nicknamed by the clerics "Mont Saint-Michel at the risk
of the sea" (Mons Sancti Michaeli in periculo mari).
The
first written traces of a religious establishment on the
Mountain links it to the diocese of Avranches, itself a
suffragan of the metropolitan of Rouen. The geographical
framework of the ecclesiastical province of Rouen also takes up
that of the Roman administrative district of Lyon, of which the
Avranchin is part, itself corresponding more or less to the
territory of the Armorican tribe of the Abrincates. Then, this
ecclesiastical province will serve as a framework for the future
Normandy.
In 867, the Treaty of Compiègne grants
Cotentin, as well as Avranchin (although it is not clearly
stipulated), to the king of Brittany, Solomon. In 870, following
a Viking raid, the population of the surroundings took refuge
there and created a town there. The Avranchin, like the Cotentin
and most of what will later be called Lower Normandy, were not
part of the territory granted to the Viking leader Rollon in
911. Mont Saint-Michel remained under the political domination
of the king of Brittany, although the religious power continued
to emanate essentially from the diocese of Avranches in the
ancient ecclesiastical province of Rouen, a city which had
meanwhile become the capital of an embryo of the Norman state.
The territory of the Mount was still under Breton domination in
933 when William I of Normandy, known as William Long Sword,
"obtained from the king of France a notable enlargement of his
territory, with Cotentin and Avranchin, hitherto controlled by
the Bretons. It is therefore on this date that the Mount is
officially attached to Normandy", the political border of the
Avranchin being fixed temporarily to the Selune, coastal river
which flowed east of the Mount. Guillaume Longue Épée made
important donations of land to the community of the Montais
canons, these domains being almost all located between the
Couesnon and the Selune.
Richard I of Normandy, son of
William the Long Sword, was keen to continue his father's work
of monastic reform and he ordered the canons to whom the Mount
had been entrusted to renounce their dissolute life or to leave
the place. All left except one, Durand, who reformed out of love
for the archangel. This is how Benedictines from different
abbeys such as Saint-Taurin d'Évreux and Saint-Wandrille settled
there in 966. The history of this foundation is recounted in the
Introductio monachorum, which appears at the beginning of the
Cartulary of Mont-Saint-Michel. The first abbot was Maynard I. A
well-established tradition has it that it is the reformer
Mainard, responsible for restoring the abbey of Saint-Wandrille
but this hypothesis remains controversial. It is he who would
have built the pre-Romanesque church called
Notre-Dame-sous-Terre, built during the same period. In 992, a
fire destroyed the village and the abbey. Maynard II, nephew of
the previous one, who was also abbot of Redon, succeeded him
until 1009. "At that time, the Mountain sealed the good
understanding between the two dukes, of Normandy and Brittany".
Are buried in the chapel of Saint-Martin of the abbey the
dukes of Brittany, of the house of Rennes :
Conan I the Wrong
(† 992), who, upon confirmation of a donation made to the abbey
of Mont-Saint-Michel, on July 28, 990 in the presence of all the
bishops of Brittany, takes the title of Princeps Britannorum ;
Geoffrey I Beranger († 1008), husband of Havoise of Normandy,
great benefactor of the abbey by giving the income of
Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes and Saint-Benoît-des-Ondes.
In 1009, the Duke of Normandy decided to exercise direct control
over the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and Abbot Maynard II, from
the community of Saint-Wandrille, was ousted and had to retreat
to the Saint-Sauveur Abbey of Redon. to be replaced by the abbot
Hildebert I, preferred by Richard II.
During the first
quarter of the eleventh century, good relations persisted
between the monks of the Mount and the dukes, under the abbots
Hildebert I (1009-1017) then Hildebert II (1017-1023) who began
the reconstruction of the Romanesque church by the crypt of the
bedside. But they spoil when the Norman Duke Richard II, who
protected the abbey like his father, decides to replace the
abbot of Mons by an external abbot and reformer, first the Roman
Supo then the Burgundian Thierry, already abbot of the abbey of
Jumièges and guardian of the abbey of Bernay, then dependency of
the abbey of Fécamp.
Taking advantage of the regency of
Havoise of Normandy, her sister, over Brittany and the
aggression of the Viking leader Olaf on Dol-de-Bretagne in 1014,
Duke Richard II of Normandy pushes back around 1027-1030 the
border with Brittany from the Selune to Couesnon.
The new
Duke Robert I of Normandy, known as Robert the Magnificent,
appoints in 1027 an abbot of Mancelle origin, Aumode, to whom he
entrusts in 1032 his new foundation, the abbey of Cerisy. The
abbot Supo is therefore recalled and directed the Montoise abbey
until his retirement at the Fruttuaria Abbey before 1048.
In 1030, Alain III, Duke of Brittany, comes into conflict
with his cousin, Duke Robert I of Normandy, son of Richard II.
It is the omnipotence of Robert "the Magnificent" who has firmly
restored ducal power in his duchy of Normandy. It is in this
view of hegemony that he asks his cousin Alain III to swear an
oath of loyalty to him. The latter refuses and forces the Duke
of Normandy to use force. After the construction of a fortress,
that of Cheruel, the Duke of Normandy launches an expedition to
Brittany. Alain retaliates by launching a counter-offensive in
the Avranchin, but he is repulsed with heavy losses. His uncle
Robert the Dane, Archbishop of Rouen, mediates during an
interview at Mont-Saint-Michel. In 1031, Alain and his brother
Eon of Penthièvre make a donation to Mont-Saint-Michel.
Duke William the Conqueror took a close interest in abbey
estates and granted benefits, both temporal and spiritual, to
the Mont Abbey which had financially supported the conquest of
England. Thus, some Mons monks were called to lead English
abbeys. Thanks to the income from the lands and priories granted
by the duke, the Romanesque abbey was quickly completed. When
the Conqueror died, the Mountain was going through a troubled
period, but thanks to the excellent administration of its
abbots, in particular Bernard du Bec, the abbey was experiencing
a great intellectual development.
It was Henri I
Beauclerc who first built a fort, probably sketchy, on the rock,
and who was immediately besieged by his brothers Robert
Courteheuse and Guillaume le Roux, in order to dislodge him, in
the fratricidal war that opposed them. After the battle on the
strikes, the Duke of Normandy, Robert, concedes to his brother
Henri the Cotentin.
The abbey escaped, in August 1138, the great fire that was
triggered by the revolted peasants of the Avranchin and which
ravaged the Mons village, following a disagreement with the monks on
the succession of Henry I Beauclerc.
History and legend blur
on this date. The texts of the time do not specify the fate of Mont
Saint-Michel, but its attachment to Normandy is attested a few
decades later, and it has already been effective for a long time
when the Breton allies of Philippe Auguste, led by Guy de Thouars,
burned the Mount in April 1204 in retaliation for the assassination
of Arthur by Jean sans Terre, and massacred the population.
Following this fire, the abbots Jourdain and Richard Tustin, rebuild
the abbey.
The fortified enclosure of the city was started
following the largesse of Saint Louis who came on pilgrimage in
1254, with the construction of the North tower and around 1257, a
door blocking the only possible access to the platform by the large
stairs to the east. The village, at that time, much smaller, grouped
its houses at the very top of the rock near the entrance to the
abbey. At the same time, the abbot Richard Turstin, built, at the
entrance to the monastery, the guard room of the abbey buildings.
This enclosure, which only surrounded the top of the Mountain,
between the North tower, the bedside of the parish church of
Saint-Pierre and the walls of the abbey house, will be completed,
around 1311, by the abbot Guillaume of the Castle.
The rise
of the pilgrimage is accompanied by an intense commercial movement.
The merchants are grouped in the path of the Lodges, a alley located
at the foot of the abbey. The traders' lodges are small cells (like
the three visible in the Sow's house) in which they sell scallops or
a Mons speciality to the miquelots (the lead bulb that is filled
with the sand of the strikes), gradually replaced from the
thirteenth century by pilgrimage signs.
In 1314, the first
garrison was installed on the Mountain, composed of a man-at-arms
and five servants, housed by the abbot in the porter's office and
whose pay was borne by the king, the monks arguing that until now,
they had defended themselves. The abbots will be, for the same
reason, captains of the city and abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel
throughout the fourteenth century and attach themselves, by giving
in fiefs taken on the domains of the abbey, the armed service of
many lords of Cotentin and Avranchin including the Painel of Hambye.
In 1346, the English spared the Mount but ravaged Avranches. In
1365, Tiphaine Raguenel, wife of Bertrand du Guesclin (then governor
of Pontorson), considering the place safe, settled there before the
departure of Du Guesclin for Spain. Under the government of the 29th
abbot, Pierre le Roy, from 1386 to 1410, some new fortifications
were built there: at the north-east corner of the Wonder, the
octagonal crowning of the Corbins tower; at the feet, a long
curtain-terrace overlooking the wood. In 1393, the door of 1257 was
flanked by two turrets. Great degrees were built in front of the
barbican, and the abbot had a fortified dwelling built, as well as
the Penine tower, with a square base, in charge of monitoring the
Great Degree.
The urban ramparts that we see today are
essentially the work of Father Robert Jollivet. In 1417, he
surrounded the lower town and the foot of the Mountain with a
continuous enclosure with a crenellated parapet on machicolations.
The curtain wall is flanked by six towers including: Tour du Roy,
Arcade, and Cholet, and warehouses were built to hold supplies and
ammunition. At the bedside of the church, a filtering cistern is
dug, and the only access to the city is blocked by a fortified door,
the Porte du Roy. In 1420, the Mount resists the invasion of the
English, but the abbot Jolivet pledges allegiance to King Henry V of
England. It is the Prior Jean Gonault who ensures the interim. In
1425, it was Louis d'Estouteville who was appointed by Charles VII
captain of the Mount and further improved the fortifications (the
King's barbican). On June 17, 1434, a new assault by the English led
by Lord Scales, which again ends in failure, the attackers
abandoning two of their bombardments, which can be seen at the
entrance to the city. It was Louis d'Estouteville, in 1441, who
would have built the Loop tower. This tower, of a new kind, capable
of withstanding artillery, was equipped with sufficiently ventilated
covered batteries.
In 1534, Gabriel du Puy, military governor of the Mountain for King Francis I, still brings some improvements: spur of the Loop tower, gate of the Advance, Gabriel tower (from the first name of its designer and not the Archangel). In 1577, Huguenots disguised as pilgrims will try to seize the Mount; the inhabitants will drive them out. The mount was inspected in 1691 by Vauban. In 1731, Louis XV takes possession of the Mount, restores the ramparts and transforms the abbey into a state prison, a function that it will ensure until the Second Empire. In 1830, the fortress was transformed into a political prison after the July riots.
"The Couesnon in his madness put the Mount in Normandy. And when the
Couesnon regains his reason, the Mountain will become Breton again".
This Breton proverb implying that the belonging of the Mountain would
depend on the ramblings of the river proves to be groundless, the
Mont-Saint-Michel being already attached to Normandy (in 933) when the
Couesnon was not yet considered as border.
Mont-Saint-Michel
would therefore have been Breton from 867 to 933, in a geopolitical way,
but without ever having been integrated into the archdiocese of Dol. It
therefore remains, at this period, dependent on the diocese of Avranches
(itself dependent on the ecclesiastical Province of Rouen)
Similarly, the foundation of a canon's college by the bishop of
Avranches in the seventh century, the choice of Saint Michael as the
patron saint of the empire by Charlemagne, then the donations of Rollon
to restore the collegiate church and finally its conversion into a
Benedictine abbey in 966 by a community of monks from the abbeys of
Saint-Wandrille, Jumièges and Saint-Taurin d'Évreux, all located in
Normandy, clearly indicate the permanent belonging of the Mountain to
the sphere of influence of the Frankish then Norman church, distinct
from the Breton church, which makes the question of the exact
geographical location rather secondary.
The official limit
between Brittany and Normandy is now fixed regardless of the location of
a watercourse, 4 km west of the rock.
It should be noted that the
hypothesis of an important rambling of the Couesnon is perfectly
coherent and probable, as the beds of the rivers could vary, in the
absence of any channelization – and sometimes of several tens of
kilometers. The fact that the mouth of the Couesnon was 6 km from the
rock in the eighteenth century does not provide any information on its
position over the previous centuries – the topography even makes it
inevitable that it has moved regularly. On the other hand, no text
attests that it swung from one side of Mont Saint-Michel to the other.
The pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel is attested in the ninth century
and it is likely that the miquelots found lodging and food at that time
in one of the inns of the village, which appeared to welcome them at the
foot of the mount. The village thus developed in the shadow of its
medieval abbey, growing at the turn of the year one thousand thanks to
the protection of the Benedictine abbots.
The economy of the
Mountain has been dependent, for twelve centuries, on the numerous
pilgrimages, in particular until the French Revolution. We come from all
over Northern Europe on a pilgrimage to the abbey: from England, France,
especially from the north and the west.
It is under the
episcopate of Bishop Abel-Anastase Germain that the grandiose
celebrations of the coronation of Saint Michael take place on July 3,
1877 in the presence of a cardinal, eight bishops, a thousand priests
and an innumerable crowd. That day, while the cannon is thundering and
military music is playing, the bishop misses losing his life: indeed,
perched on top of a ladder to crown the head of the Archangel, Bishop
Germain is about to lose his balance and fall into the void.
Already since the nineteenth century, romantic authors and painters
came to the mountain, for its unique charm and its picturesque
qualities, such as Guy de Maupassant. At the end of the century, several
hotels were established at Mt. In the second half of the twentieth
century, the transformation of the site into a world-class place of
visit made the small Norman town one of the first tourist destinations
in France.
The attendance of the site and the abbey is
concentrated in time. It is strongest during the summer period and some
spring weekends which concentrate a third of the visitors to
Mont-Saint-Michel, with a daily average approaching 12,000 visitors and
peaks exceeding 16,000 visitors per day, with a flow of visitors less
and less dense as you ascend to the abbey (only a third going up to the
abbey). The average visit time is two to three hours. "During a day, it
is between 11 a.m. and 16 p.m. that the density of visitors to the site
is the highest".
The Mount has been experiencing a decline in
attendance since the beginning of the twenty-first century, from 3.5
million visitors to 2.2 million in 2013. The site is indeed suffering
from the new conditions of service of the peninsula and the bad
reputation of Mont-Saint-Michel which charges dearly for poor services.
Since July 22, 2014, visitors can get to the Mountain by the new
access works created by the architect Dietmar Feichtinger who won the
competition for the Saint-Michel project. A new seawall and a stilt
walkway allowing the water to pass underneath now serve the island.
However, the tourist decline continues, due in particular to the
increase in parking rates, the crossing on foot which takes 50 minutes
or the shuttles which only make part of the route.
The neighboring municipalities are Beauvoir, Pontorson and Pontorson.
Mont Saint-Michel, located at 48 ° 38' 10" north latitude and 1 °
30' 40" west longitude, in the "country" of Avranchin, is a rocky islet
east of the mouth of the Couesnon, which flows into the English Channel.
Pointedly granitic with a circumference of about 960 meters, this islet
rises above a sandy plain at an altitude of 92 meters. The construction
of the abbey modifies this perception: the height of the rock at the
abbey is 78.60 meters, that of the floor of the abbey at the top of the
tower is 34.70 m, the spire reaches a height of 39.80 m. The statue of
Saint Michael, 4 m high, thus rises to 157.10 meters.
From a
geological point of view, this point is a small-scale leucogranitic
intrusion (leucogranite with biotite and muscovite) set up in the
Cadomian basement (hosting Brioverian schist) during the Caledonian
orogeny (525 Ma). This intrusion, cleared of its schistose gangue and
highlighted by erosion (leucogranite presenting a greater resistance to
erosion than shale), offers an emerged area of about 7 ha, above which
stands the abbey. The essential part of the rock is covered by the
footprint of the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and its domain. The rock
represents only a small part of the municipality which also extends over
the dyke and several tens of hectares of polders.
In 1846,
Édouard Le Héricher described it as follows: "Mont Saint-Michel appears
as a circular mountain that seems to collapse under the monumental
pyramid that crowns it. We would like to extend its crown into a sharp
spire that would rise to the sky (the current spire only dates from
1899), dominating its canopy of mists or losing itself in a pure and
warm light. Vast solitudes surround it, that of the sea or that of the
sea, framed in distant green or black shores".
Mont Saint-Michel (the islet or the abbey) in turn gave its name to
the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, whose coastline is inscribed on the UNESCO
World Heritage list.
The bay of Mont-Saint-Michel is the scene of
the largest tides in continental Europe, up to 15 meters of tidal range,
difference between low and high seas. The sea then joins the coasts "at
the speed of a galloping horse", as the saying goes.
The municipality covers about four square kilometers. Apart from the
rock with an area of seven hectares, the municipal territory includes
two disjointed land parts totaling 393 ha, bordering the municipalities
of Beauvoir (for the most part) and Pontorson.
The most important
part (about 387 ha), to the west of the Couesnon, consists of the
hamlets of Belmontet, Saincey and Camus, and the Molinié and Tesnières
polders. This part borders the town of Beauvoir to the south.
The
smallest part (about 6 ha), to the east of the Couesnon, forms the
western part of the place called the Barracks, between the
Mont-Saint-Michel road and the coastal river. It is landlocked between
the territories of the municipalities of Beauvoir (to the south and
west) and Pontorson (to the east). There are four hotels there.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the frank oceanic
climate type, according to a CNRS study based on a series of data
covering the period 1971-2000. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a
typology of the climates of metropolitan France in which the
municipality is exposed to an oceanic climate and is in the climatic
region of eastern and southern Brittany, Pays Nantes, Vendée,
characterized by low rainfall in summer and good insolation. At the same
time, the Normandy IPCC, a regional group of climate experts,
differentiates, for its part, in a 2020 study, three main types of
climates for the Normandy region, nuanced on a finer scale by local
geographical factors. The town is, according to this zoning, exposed to
a "maritime climate", corresponding to the Cotentin and the west of the
department of Manche, cool, humid and rainy, where the rainfall and
thermal contrasts are sometimes very pronounced in a few kilometers when
the relief is marked.
For the period 1971-2000, the average
annual temperature is 11.7 ° C, with an annual thermal amplitude of 12.2
° C. The average annual cumulative rainfall is 706 mm, with 12.5 days of
precipitation in January and 7.2 days in July. For the period 1991-2020
the annual average temperature observed on the nearest meteorological
station, located in the town of Pontorson 9 km as the crow flies, is
11.9 ° C and the average annual cumulative rainfall is 821.3 mm. For the
future, the climate parameters of the municipality estimated for 2050
according to different greenhouse gas emission scenarios can be
consulted on a dedicated website published by Météo-France in November
2022.
Mont-Saint-Michel is a rural municipality, because it is part of the
municipalities with little or very little density, within the meaning of
the Insee's communal density grid. The municipality is also out of
attraction of the cities.
The municipality, bordered by the
English Channel, is also a coastal municipality within the meaning of
the law of January 3, 1986, called the coastal law. Specific urban
planning provisions therefore apply in order to preserve natural spaces,
sites, landscapes and the ecological balance of the coastline, such as
the principle of unconstructibility, outside urbanized spaces, on the
coastal strip of 100 meters, or more if the local urban planning plan
provides for it.
The land use of the municipality, as it appears from the European database of biophysical land use Corine Land Cover (CLC), is marked by the importance of agricultural territories (95.1% in 2018), a proportion identical to that of 1990 (95.1%). The detailed distribution in 2018 is as follows: arable land (95.1%), coastal wetlands (3.9%), artificial green spaces, non-agricultural (1.1%). The evolution of the land use of the municipality and its infrastructures can be observed on the various cartographic representations of the territory: the Cassini map (eighteenth century), the staff map (1820-1866) and the maps or aerial photos of the IGN for the current period (1950 to today).
The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the
population censuses carried out in the municipality since 1793. For
municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, a census survey
covering the entire population is carried out every five years, the
legal populations of the intermediate years being estimated by
interpolation or extrapolation. For the municipality, the first
exhaustive census within the framework of the new system was carried out
in 2006.
In 2021, the municipality had 25 inhabitants, a decrease
of 24.24% compared to 2015 (Manche: -0.76%, France excluding Mayotte:
+1.84%).
In the Middle Ages, 300 to 400 people lived at Mt. The
population fell to 234 in 1800 before the abbey became a central prison
in 1810. The prison closed in 1863 and the population, having returned
to previous values, has been declining ever since, the discomfort of the
houses on the Rock (cramped, damp because they were built on top of the
permanently oozing rock, and not accessible by car) prompting the
inhabitants to settle in nicer houses in the bay. Among the 44 Mons
residents counted in 2013, 20 live in the polders, 24 intramural (a
family with two children, a shopkeeper, the administrator of the
monument, two firefighters, a security guard, five monks, seven nuns and
three priests).
Concerts and exhibitions at the abbey
Anxious to restore cultural
influence to the Mountain, the National Monuments Center has been
organizing since 2010 a series of prestigious concerts at the abbey
between May and September. Thus were invited Jordi Saval, Hespèrion XXI,
the accentus choir, Laurence Equilbey, the Concert spirituel, Hervé
Niquet, Anne Queffélec, Jean-Guihen Queyras, the Basse-Normandie
Orchestra, the Republican Guard Orchestra, the organists Vincent
Warnier, Didier Hennuyer and Thierry Escaich…
On this occasion,
the restoration of the organ was completed in 2012.
Exhibitions
are proposed every year by the CMN, including an Arnulf Rainer
exhibition in 2012.
Festival "13 centuries between sky and sea"
During the elaboration of the festivities of the 13th centenary of the
foundation of the mount, the diocese of Coutances and Avranches and the
Robert-de-Torigni association decided, among other things, to create a
Christian art festival to "sensitize the visitor to the spiritual side
of Mont-Saint-Michel". This would take place in July 2008 and would
coincide with the 2008 World Youth Day organized in Sydney.
Thus,
during this month of July, with the help of the Monastic Fraternities of
Jerusalem of Mont-Saint-Michel, two weeks of festival were proposed,
composed of a week of concerts and various animations (classical, gospel
...) and another exhibition (calligraphy, binding, drawing). In
addition, celebrations, vigils and other festivities took place, in
connection with the Sydney WYD. After this founding edition, the
festival was perpetuated, taking place for a week each summer.
The Mont-Saint-Michel has long "belonged" to a few families, who
shared the shops of the town, and succeeded each other in the
administration of the village. Tourism is indeed the main, and even
almost the only source of income for the municipality despite
agriculture on the polders. There are about fifty shops for 2.5 million
tourists, while only 25 people sleep every night on the mount (monks
included) except in hotels. Even today, a dozen families share the main
establishments of the municipality :
Eric Vannier, owner of the
Poulard Mother group (owning half of the restaurants, shops and hotels
in the town intra- and extra-muros, as well as three museums) ;
Patrick Gaulois, former aedile, hotelier and restaurateur intramural
(and in Saint-Malo) ;
several families from Mons who control the
Sodetour (five hotels, a supermarket and all extramural shops, including
the Mercure La Caserne which benefits from the influx of tourists as
part of the Saint-Michel Project and is nicknamed "Las Vegas for its
flashy signs").
Mont-Saint-Michel has been called a "tourist
town" since August 2009
Like other places that may require regulation
of tourist flows, the site is a victim of its success and overtourism.
In the summer of 2019, the police had to relieve the congestion of
25,000 people per day, leading Yan Galton, mayor of the town, to wish to
"make the bay touristic" and not just the site. For Jean-François Rial,
CEO of Voyageurs du monde and president of the Paris tourist office, it
is "one of the worst examples of France" and "a good solution" is to go
to Cancale to watch it from afar". Jacques Bono, the next mayor,
maintained this policy by believing that Mont-Saint-Michel should remain
"a commune, with freedom of movement" and stressed that tourists often
come from very far away without having booked
Aubert d'Avranches (born around 660, died in 725), bishop of
Avranches and hermit on the Mont-Tombe. Saint Michael appeared to him
three times to order him to build a chapel.
Robert of Thorigny (c.
1110-1186), famous abbot of Mont.
William of Saint Pair (fl. in the
twelfth century), monk of the abbey author of the Novel of
Mont-Saint-Michel.
Louis d'Estouteville (before 1400-1464), captain
of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Louis XI who constituted there in 1469 the
Order of Saint-Michel.
Anne of Joyeuse (1560-1587), governor of Mont,
favorite of Henry III.
Jean-Baptiste Le Carpentier (Helleville, 1759
- Le Mont, 1829), conventional, died prisoner at Mt.
The Duke of
Chartres (future Louis-Philippe I) (1773-1850), who came to demolish the
"iron cage".
Mathurin Bruneau (1784-1822), saboteur, swindler and
false Louis XVII, prisoner in the mont in 1821-1822.
Louis Auguste
Blanqui (1805-1881), political prisoner.
Armand Barbès (1809-1870),
political prisoner.
Monsignor Jean-Pierre Bravard (1811-1876),
consecrated bishop of Coutances on October 28, 1862, he resigned on
November 27, 1875 to die less than a year later; he is the restorer of
the abbey.
Édouard Corroyer (1835-1904), architect, restorer of the
Mount in 1878, and who brought to the rock his maid, Anne Boutiaut, the
future mother Poulard.
Henri Voisin (1861-1945), born in Saint-Mandé
(Val-de-Marne) on August 6, 1861, died in Indre-et-Loire on December 4,
1945 is an artistic personality of the English Channel, illustrator and
engraver; he devotes to the Marvel no less than three hundred etchings.
In addition, he writes several books and brochures and illustrates many
others. Together with this intense artistic activity, Henri Voisin,
wishing to ensure the safeguarding of the Mont, founded, on December 27,
1911, with the help of Paul Deschanel, the association "the Friends of
Mont-Saint-Michel" of which he was the secretary general for
twenty-seven years. According to David Nicolas, "from 1912 to 1938,
every year, he made and handed over a large-format engraving to each of
the members of the association who were thus able to build up a superb
collection of twenty-seven different engravings". In 1938, he was made a
knight of the Legion of Honor for his action in favor of
Mont-Saint-Michel.
Mother Poulard (1851-1931), restorer (see below).
Émile Couillard (1880-1951), writer, historian of the Mountain and abbot
of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Yves-Marie Froidevaux (1907-1983), architect
and restorer of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Since the Middle Ages, the Mont-Saint-Michel has been the subject of representation, particularly in illuminated manuscripts. The most famous representation is undoubtedly found in the Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, illustrating the feast of the archangel in the book of hours. The miniature is attributed to one of the brothers from Limburg, who painted it between 1411 and 1416. But we find the mount represented in at least seven other books of hours of the fifteenth century. This is the case in particular in The Very Beautiful Hours of the Duke of Berry or hours of Brussels, in a scene of flight to Egypt (around 1400), in the Hours of Marshal Boucicaut (Jacquemart-André museum) on folio 11v (around 1405), in the Sobieski Hours preserved at Windsor Castle, (f.204v) attributed to the Master of Bedford, the Book of hours for the use of Nantes preserved at the Bodleian Library (1450-1455).
In 1832, the fantastic novel La Fée aux miettes by the writer Charles
Nodier evokes the shifting sands of the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel.
In
1850, Paul Féval's historical novel, The Fairy of the Strikes, whose
action takes place in 1450, evokes the legends of Mont-Saint-Michel and
Mont Tombelaine.
In 1887, in The Horla, a fantastic story by Guy de
Maupassant, the main character ends his therapeutic trip to
Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 1890, in Our Heart, a novel by Guy de
Maupassant, the two main characters, André Mariolle and Michèle de
Burne, are walking in Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 1967, in his cycle of the
Princes of Amber, Roger Zelazny was inspired by the facilities and
particularities of Mont-Saint-Michel to create his Amber City.
In
1984, the Ministry of Culture published the book découpage by the
creator François Rouillay, allowing to relive the thousand years of
history and architecture of Mont-Saint-Michel, with a preface by
Françoise Chandernagor.
In 1998, the novel The Skull pierced with a
hole by Evelyne Brisou-Pellen evokes the main character, Garin
Trousseboeuf, who solves a mysterious story about a very precious relic
and a scribe dying on arrival. The author mixes in this book adventure,
suspense, humor and beautiful pages on the life of the monks at Mont
Saint-Michel.
In 2004, the novel The Promise of the Angel, by
Frédéric Lenoir and Violette Cabesos, is an archaeological thriller
whose action is mainly located in Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 2005, Maxime
Chattam's thriller The Blood of Time takes place in Mont-Saint-Michel in
2005 and in Egypt of the 1920s.
In 2011, the science fiction novel
The Age of the Wind by Pierre Bameul in which Mont-Saint-Michel became
the seat of a New post-apocalyptic Vatican.
In 2014, the Saint-Michel
novel, pray for them! by Jean-Pierre Alaux where the curator Séraphin
Cantarel is mandated to restore the statue of the archangel.
In 1961, Jacques Martin made Guy Lefranc evolve partly on the rock in
The Hurricane of Fire, the second part of the adventures of the
journalist.
In 1999 and 2000, Bruno Bertin published by P'tit Louis
Editions two youth comics of the Adventures of Vick and Vicky set in
Mont-Saint-Michel, under the common title The Archangels of
Mont-Saint-Michel: The Testament (volume 1) and The Curse (volume 2).
In 2008, the comic strip The Devil & the Archangel, text and drawing by
Guillaume Néel, color by Julien Gondouin, takes up an old medieval
legend about the creation of Mont-Saint-Michel, and is embellished with
an educational booklet to better understand the Devil and the Archangel,
the history of the Mount, the city.
The school of the Blue Exorcist
manga universe, called "True Cross Academy", is inspired by
Mont-Saint-Michel.
In the manga Rosario+Vampire II, the headquarters
of the Fairy Tale organization is very strongly inspired by
Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 2012, in the American comic book series Glory
by Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell published by Image Comics, the action
takes place at Mont Saint Michel.
Gilles Chaillet also makes his hero
Vasco evolve at Mont Saint-Michel in The dogue de Brocéliande.
In 1988, the Solar Mount, an ephemeral work of Land Art, transforms Mont-Saint-Michel into a sundial using the spire of the abbey during the autumn equinox. With a length of 1,125 m ranging from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. TU, it consists of seven Roman numerals, from IX to III, about twenty meters long, as well as dots symbolizing the half-hours.
On July 28, 1993, the composer Jean-Michel Jarre gives a concert
there, a show opening his world tour honoring the architectural wonders
classified as world heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
In 1996, the
English composer Mike Oldfield released the album Voyager, one of the
titles of which is dedicated to Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 1998, the
French composer Patrick Broguière published under the title Mont
Saint-Michel a progressive rock concept album entirely devoted to the
legends of Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 1999, the Breton harpist musician
Kirjuhel published the album Echo of Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 2001, the
English musician Aphex Twin, originally from Cornwall, released the
electronic music album Drukqs, whose title Mt Saint Michel + St Michaels
Mount is inspired by both Mont-Saint-Michel and St Michaels' Mount,
located in Cornwall.
In 2003, the group Oldelaf and Monsieur D
published the song Le Mont St-Michel on the album Chansons Cons.
1949: The troubled waters of Henri Calef
1983: Pauline at the
beach by Eric Rohmer (visible on a short and only shot)
1990: There
are days... and moons by Claude Lelouch
1991 : The Secret of Sarah
Tombelaine by Daniel Lacambre
1998: Armageddon by Michael Bay
2003: Mont Saint-Michel was the inspiration for Peter Jackson's team for
the city of Minas Tirith in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return
of the King.
2009: Every other week (and half of the school holidays)
by Ivan Calbérac
2010: The artistic team of Disney studios was
inspired by Mont-Saint-Michel to realize the Kingdom of Rapunzel
2013: To the Wonder of Terrence Malick
2016: Everything to be happy
by Cyril Gelblat – pre-credits scene (source: credits).
2010: The Shadow of Mont-Saint-Michel by Klaus Biedermann (TV movie)
As early as 1930, the post office issued a brown 5-franc stamp.
In
1966, a new stamp of 25 cents, black, green and red on straw is issued
on the occasion of the millennium of Mont-Saint-Michel.
In 1998, new
stamp of 3 francs, multicolored. This stamp will be voted the most
beautiful stamp of the year.
In 2006, the post office in a joint
issue with the United Nations of Geneva issues two stamps, one of which
is the Mont-Saint-Michel and its abbey (Manche) whose value is 90 euro
cents. The theme was: Monuments. World heritage.
In video games
A Sniper Elite 5 mission (2022) takes place in a village named
Beaumont-Saint-Denis, largely inspired by Mont Saint-Michel.
Mont
Saint-Michel is represented during the Renaissance in Assassin's Creed
Brotherhood (2010), a video game published by Ubisoft Montreal. The city
is indeed proposed as a playground ("map") for multiplayer games in the
first downloadable content released in December 2010.
Mont
Saint-Michel is represented in contemporary times in the video game
Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (2004) published by Capcom.
Mont Saint-Michel
is represented at the time of the Renaissance in a game for 3DS, Kingdom
Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (2012), video game created by Square Enix
and Disney Interactive Studios.
The mount is present in the
Civilization VI game as a buildable wonder.
The mount is used as a
backdrop for the cover of the game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
The mountain is in the spotlight in a game on the CD-I entitled The
Angel and the Demon. The game consists of many interior shots of the
mountain and some aerial. The player must find objects in order to
awaken the Archangel St. Michael so that he can prevent the Demon from
destroying the world.
In Pokémon X and Y, the Mastery Tower, a place
in the Kalos region, is inspired by Mount St. Michael.
In
esotericism
According to some esoteric sites, Mont Saint-Michel is
located on an axis that connects different places dedicated to Saint
Michael in Europe, starting from the old monastery dedicated to Saint
Michael, on Great Skelling Island in Ireland, then by St Michael's Mount
in Cornwall, to Monte Gargano in Puglia, Delos Island in Greece, and
Lydia where Saint George would have killed the dragon. Another mountain
is topped by the abbey of Saint-Michel-de-la-Cluse in the Susa Valley.