Mont-Saint-Michel: more than expected

During trip planning I was surprised to learn that Mont St Michel is the second to Paris for all destinations in France. Of the many art museums we visited I recall exactly one painting of St Michel, as supposed to the dozens of Etretat. I wonder how did the place became so popular, though I do have to admit the place was every bit as impressive as I had expected, may be even grander.

We saw the place at high tide, at low tide, sunset, sunrise, and in moon light, all in less than 18 hours. Our visit is complete. I had been so worried that we wouldn't have enough time because our arrival was delayed for more than an hour because our train had to wait for a delay connecting train from Paris. When our train did finally reached Pontorson, there was no shuttlebus, no taxi can be summoned. We found two local men who happened to park at the train station to take us 6km towards Mont St Michel. Such kindness!

Lucky us! The sun was just rising as our bus from Le Havre to Caen crossed over the misty Seine.




We were very excited to finally see Mont-Saint-Michel (MSM) in person.


There is a small tidal bore around MSM. Here's a 30-second video. People were gathered on the city walls and sandy shore watching the water roll in.






There's a new-ish bridge that replaces much of the old causeway between the mainland and MSM. And there is a free shuttlebus to cover the 3 km distance


View from the sand before the sea came in.


Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey.


One of the gates of the city wall.


The wide causeway-bridge has a road for vehicles and cyclists, and dedicated paths for walkers on each side. Nice.


The island of Mont-Saint-Michel and the bridge, offer a pretty much 360 view of sunrises and sunsets and....






We were lucky. It's an evening with a full moon rising in the east during the sunset..




We get in line to take the free shuttlebus back to our hotel which was just behind a shuttlebus stop.


After a quick dinner, we come back out for the moonlit night.








We woke up early to walk back out across the causeway and bridge to catch the amazing sunrise.










As we headed back to hotel, a mist mist rises out of the marshes as sheep are filing out to graze in the pastures. Wow! And some walkers are spotted.








Back near our hotel.