Mont Saint Michel (original) (raw)

Mont Saint Michel is a small rocky islet, roughly one kilometer from the north coast of France at the mouth of the River Couesnon, in Normandy near the border of Brittany. It is home to the unusual Benedictine Abbey Church (built between the 11th and 16th centuries) which occupies most of the one kilometer diameter clump of rocks jutting out of the ocean.

It is connected to the mainland via a thin natural land bridge, which before modernization was covered at high tide, and revealed at low tide. Thus, Mont Saint Michel gained a mystical quality, being an island half the time, and being attached to land the other. In 1879, the land bridge was fortified into a true causeway.

The tides in the area shift quickly, and has been described by Victor Hugo as "� la vitesse d'un cheval au galop" or as swiftly as a galloping horse. The tides can vary greatly, at roughly 14 meters between high and low water marks.

It is a World Heritage Site.