Mount San Michel

There are places that look beautiful in photographs, and then there are places that seem almost unreal when you finally see them with your own eyes. Mont Saint-Michel is one of those places. As I approach it, the first thing that strikes me is its silhouette. Rising dramatically from the vast landscape of the bay. At the very top, the abbey dominates everything around it, while below it, the medieval village appears to climb the rock, surrounded by massive walls. It is an extraordinary first impression. And perhaps what makes Mont Saint-Michel so fascinating is that its appearance is not simply the result of someone deciding to build a beautiful monument in a beautiful location. Almost everything we see here is the result of more than a thousand years of religion, architecture, war, pilgrimage, imprisonment, restoration and, eventually, tourism. Today, millions of people come here every year. But long before it became one of France's most famous tourist destinations, this small rocky island was a place of faith and pilgrimage. The story traditionally begins in the year 708. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared three times in dreams to Aubert, the bishop of Avranches. Michael instructed him to build a sanctuary on this isolated rock, which was then known as Mont-Tombe. Aubert eventually followed the command, and a small sanctuary was established here in honour of Saint Michael. Whether we look at the story as religious tradition or as legend, it became the foundation for everything that followed. More than two and a half centuries later, in 966, Benedictine monks were established on the Mont by Richard the First, Duke of Normandy. From this point, the site began to develop into something much greater than a small religious sanctuary. It became a monastery. And then it became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Western Europe.