Saturday, June 26, 2010

Mont Saint Michel

Ok, finally Mont Saint Michel.

There are a lot of stairs...

A bridge from one section to another...

A nice little patio...

With a nice little view...


Main area for worship...



The cloisters...



The dinning hall...


With huge fireplaces...

Yes, of course, I had to take a look inside...

Many of the rooms underneath are full of columns to support the rooms above...

Lot's of windows to let in natural light...


I overheard one of my fellow tourists trying to figure out what this thing is...
I figured it out. They string rope through them and use them as hand rails.




There was a system in place to get things into the abbey without carrying them up all of the stairs...


Except for the mound that the abbey is on, the area is pretty flat...


As I recall, this is where funerals were held...

More stairs...


And windows...

The kitchen...


What might have been the use of a trapdoor in the kitchen?...







They worked hard to build the abbey right on this rock of an island...



Several school groups were exploring the tidal flats...



The village below has narrow old streets (full of tourists)...


More school groups...



There was a French flag out front...

As well as an American flag...

It was a wonderful place to visit, but like my visit to Alcatraz back in March, I really wish there were fewer tourists. You can feel that there is a lot of history, but you can't really be transported in time when there are so many other people around.