mont-saint-michel

HotelSearch can’t disguise the fact that we love fantasy trips like this one. When it comes to the Mont Saint-Michel we have to advise you to prepare yourself to become a kid again, because since the very moment you arrive you will be part of a fairy tale, as if you were 5 years old again.

As a part of Normandy, in the north west of France, Mont Saint-Michel is a rocky island located aproximately one kilometer away from the coast, near the Avranches and inside the Couesnon River. With a population of only 41 inhabitants, the town used to be connected to the mainland through a land bridge that appeared and dissapeared over the night thanks to the tides, but modernization has solved the problem by securing the bridge and controlling the river, because there were times in which the town of the mountain got completely isolated by water, thus creating the most fantastic view ever seen.

Of course the history of the place couldn’t be separated from war. The mont used to be a fortified stronghold of the Roman-Bretons in the 6th and 7th century. According to the legend, St. Michael the Archangel appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, and told him to build a church on the hill, but the bishop refused and refused. Finally, in order to convince the bishop, St. Michel had to burn a hole in his skull with his finger.

Later on, during the Hundred Years’ War the English made several attacks on the rocky island but could never seize it due to the natural fortifications of the place, which is nothing else but the tides of the river, that will never let nobody camp outside it.

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There was even a time in which monks left the Abbey and they had to convert it into a prison, finally closed in 1863, due to the pressure of hundreds of men like Victor Hugo, that wanted the place to become what it originally was, a national architectural treasure.

Although the French Government has made every effort to avoid danger, visitors sometimes get trapped by the tides because they decide to walk through the sand instead of using the normal causeway, thus puting their lives in jeopardy. The tides vary roughly and quickly, it is not for nothing that people go all the way to the mont only to discover the magical tides.

If you are planning to visit Mont Saint-Michel on your car we have to tell you that there is a distance of 1249 km from the capital of Spain, Madrid, and as there are no highways from a  certain point in France you should take at least 13 hours to get there, but of course, only if you depart from Madrid. You should head towards Valladolid, then cross the frontier and get to Bordeaux, then up to Nantes, and finally Normandy, where you will find signs to get to the Mont Saint-Michel. It is always lovely to cross France whether it is from south to north or west to east, because it is a friendly country (except Parisians) that has many things to offer and has many fantasy places like this one to visit.

Take a look at these hotels in Mont Saint-Michel:

Hotel Le Saint-Aubert

Hotel Le Relais Saint-Michel