{"id":1017,"date":"2013-07-04T11:34:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T15:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/?page_id=1017"},"modified":"2014-10-25T11:51:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-25T15:51:28","slug":"my-visit-with-archie-2013-page-6","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/my-visit-with-archie-2013-page-6\/","title":{"rendered":"My Visit with Archie – Page 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mont St Michel<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Mon Dieu”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0We left the Normandy coast in early afternoon after having our lunch (made at the hotel) at Ste Mere Eglise and drove about 90 miles to Mont St Michele. \u00a0We got there in late afternoon and decided to reconnoiter the area in preparation for a visit the next day.<\/strong>\"1350<\/a><\/strong>Here is our first view. \u00a0It was a special treat for me. \u00a0Mont St Michel is a world icon and has to be seen in person to be believed. This is about as close as you can get by car. \u00a0We found out that the Mont is only accessible by bike or by a free bus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\"1780<\/a><\/strong>What we also saw \u00a0HUGE parking lots for the visitors cars. \u00a0I found this aerial shot of the area. \u00a0You can see the Mont at the top, a thin line of a roadway, the polders (salt marsh fields), and finally, at the bottom, two HUGE \u00a0parking lots –\u00a04,100 spaces<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It was late in the day and the parking lots were still full. \u00a0I don’t know where everyone was because the Mont island isn’t that big. What we decided was that we’d better get there early in the AM to avoid the crowds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1420<\/a>We left the Mont area and drove a few miles to the town of Portonson. \u00a0There we found a guest house called Les Epinetts \u00a0(The Spinets- pianos) and got a nice room and breakfast for 40 euros (about $50.00).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"1410<\/a> \"1415<\/a>We also got a good dinner at the local hotel: Le Beauvior for 12.50 euros ($16.00). \u00a0I had an AUCE salad bar an a piece of local fish. \u00a0It was excellent. \u00a0I forget what Archie had. \u00a0Here is the hotel and my fish:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1450<\/a>After dinner we walked around town a bit and went back to our room at the guest house. \u00a0I guess I did a bit more snoring because Archie said we’d have to get separate rooms for the next night.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\"1430<\/a>The next morning (Day 5 of my visit) we had breakfast with the proprietoress of the guest house.She gave us some suggestions about when to go to Mont St Michel (early). \u00a0All her breakfast items were home made: breads, pancakes, rolls, etc. All was good!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1770<\/a>We drove to the HUGE parking lot, walked to \u00a0the bus station, caught the special bus to \u00a0the Mont. \u00a0The buses were special double ended buses. \u00a0The drive didn’t have to turn around when he got to the Mont. \u00a0He just got out and walked to the other end and drove away without turning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1500<\/a>Anyway, we took the bus to the Mont and walked to the entrance to the town. The Abbey sits on top of the Mont with a “village” below it surrounded by fortress walls.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The “Wonder of the Western World” forms a tower in the heart of an immense bay invaded by the highest tides in Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Here is the history of Mt St Michel:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was at the request of the Archangel Michel “chief of the celestial militia” that Aubert, Bishop of Avranches built and consecrated a small church on the 16th October 709. In 966 a community of Benedictines settled on the rock at the request of the Duke of Normandy and the pre-Romanesque church was built before the year one thousand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>In the 11th century, the Romanesque abbey church was founded over a set of crypts where the rock comes to an apex, and the first monastery buildings were built up against its north wall.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 12th century, the Romanesque monastery buildings were extended to the west and south.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 13th century, a donation by the king of France, Philip Augustus, in the wake of his conquest of Normandy, enabled a start to be made on the Gothic section of the “Merveille “: two three-story buildings, crowned by the cloister and the refectory.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 14th century, the Hundred Years War made it necessary to protect the abbey behind a set of military constructions, enabling it to hold out against a siege lasting 30 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 15th century, the Romanesque chancel of the abbey church, broken down in 1421 was replaced by the Gothic Flamboyant chancel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Rome and Saint Jacques de Compostelle, this great spiritual and intellectual centre, was one of the most important places of pilgrimage for the Medieval occident. For nearly one thousand years men, women and children went there by roads called \u00ab paths to paradise \u00bb hoping for the assurance of eternity, given by the Archangel of judgement .<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Abbey was turned into a prison during the days of the French Revolution and Empire, and needed to be restored before the end of the 19th century.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the celebration of the monastic’s 1000th anniversary, in the year 1966 a religious community moved back to what used to be the abbatial dwellings, perpetuating prayer and welcome the original vocation of this place. Friars and sisters from “Les Fraternit\u00e9s Monastiques de Jerusalem” have been ensuring a spiritual presence since the year 2001.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the same time as the abbey was developing a village grew up from the Middle Age. It flourished on the south-east side of the rock surrounded by walls dated for the most part from the Hundred Years war. This village has always a commercial vocation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNESCO has classed the Mont Saint-Michel as a world heritage in 1979 and this mecca of tourism welcomes more than three million visitors a year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These pictures of the models below show the development of the Abbey, the village and the walls:<\/strong>\"1570<\/a>\"1580<\/a>\"1590<\/a>\"1600<\/a><\/p>\n

\"1510<\/a>This is the entrance gate<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1510<\/a>After the entrance gate there is the town gate<\/strong>:\u00a0It was pretty quiet because we were early.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1525<\/a>Here is the only street in the town. \u00a0Access to everything is from this street; I took this picture as we were leaving around 11AM. \u00a0Note the crowds and remember the HUGE parking lots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1550<\/a>Here are the stairs leading up and up to the Abbey. \u00a0I got caught up with a bunch of camera wielding Japanese tourists.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"1630<\/a>This is the “top of the rock”. It \u00a0is the Abbey Chuoch built in the years around 1000 AD.. It is 280 feet above sea level\u00a0. The spire is what can bee seen miles away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1640<\/a>Inside the Church is the Chancel of the huge Gothic Nave<\/strong>\"1650<\/a>To the left of the Nave is the Cloister – a covered walkway connecting different parts of the Abbey.. I had one of the Japanese tourists take this picture. \u00a0I toured the Abbey alone. \u00a0Archie has a problem with heights and he stayed below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1660<\/a>This is the exterior of the Nave as seen from the Cloister<\/strong>\u00a0\"1660<\/a>Connected to the Cloister is the Refectory. \u00a0The was main dining hall for the Monks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1690<\/a><\/strong>Below the Refectory on the middle level of the Abbey is the Guest Hall. \u00a0A meeting and greeting place for visiting dignitaries. Note the columns. \u00a0This is what hold up the Refectory above.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"1680<\/a>Next to the Guest Hall is the Great Pillared Crypt. \u00a0These massive pillars are what holds up the huge Chancel of the \u00a0Nave above.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1730<\/a>This is the Saint Martin Crypt. \u00a0It holds up part of the Transept of the Nave.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1700<\/a>Enough with Crypts and Columns. \u00a0Lets look at something interesting: The Monks Ossuary (bone room). \u00a0It did contain bones once, but they were moved so this giant\u00a0wheel could be installed. \u00a0This wheel ran a pulley system that brought food and supplies up to the prisoners during the 19th century. \u00a0It was modeled after early pulleys used to haul up building material. It was powered by men – \u00a0walking like gerbils inside the wheel.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1720<\/a>I left the Abbey via these stairs, through the Gift Shop, and down the now crowded street, and met Archie at the town entrance..<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1790<\/a>For 2 days I had been whining to Archie that I needed a picture of some Normandy cows. \u00a0He finally stopped so I could get this picture: They are grazing in a polder (a drained salt marsh). \u00a0Local sheep that graze here have meat that is prized for its “polder flavor”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s it for Mt St Michel. \u00a0A great stop! \u00a0Now on to Bayeux and “The Tapestry”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Go to Page 07<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mont St Michel “Mon Dieu” \u00a0We left the Normandy coast in early afternoon after having our lunch (made at the hotel) at Ste Mere Eglise and drove about 90 miles to Mont St Michele. \u00a0We got there in late afternoon … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1017","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2432,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1017\/revisions\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}