Wandergliding: Mont Saint-Michel

October 30^th, 2025

Last night I parked Octi right by a church on a hill in the small village called Beauvoir (literally “good look”), which according to my camping app (Search for Sites), was an okay place to spend the night for free. There was only one other campervan in one of the eight parking spots. From the reviews on the app, I was aware that I’d be woken up at 7 am by the church bells, but that was a nice way to start the day.

My plan was to visit the tidal island of Mont Saint-Michel. It is somewhat related to St. Michael’s Mount, which is off the coast of England near Penzance in Cornwall. The relationship began in the 11th century when the English Mount was gifted to the monastery of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy. My father grew up in Cornwall, and we used to have a little statue of St. Michael’s Mount in our house when I was a kid. Naomi and I visited it in 2017, but I must admit, Mont Saint-Michel is much more impressive.

Visiting St. Michael's Mount in 2017:

It was about a 5 km walk to Mont Saint-Michel, a tidal island that has been built up over the centuries, starting back in around 708. I could have walked about 2 km and then hopped on the free shuttle, but I thought it would be cool to walk along the long, curving bridge to approach the medieval complex. I figured I’d take advantage of the bus on the way back.

The start of my walk.

Looking back at where I came from. Octi is parked by the church just off to the right of the center of the photo.

High tide was at 10:53 in the morning and I left Octi around 8:30 with about an hour’s walk to complete. In my research, I learned that Mont Saint-Michel became a proper island for about an hour around high tide but was otherwise accessible by the walkway. So, I kept a fairly good pace walking through the lovely countryside, hoping to make it there before the bridge was flooded by the seawater.

A zoomed in pic of my destination.

I asked a couple of older French ladies if they wanted me to take a photo of them together in exchage for one of me.

As I got closer, and started to cross the bridge, the ocean looked to be over a kilometer away. There was no way that it was going to fill up in the next hour or so. Too bad, I was hoping to arrive and be stranded there for a bit while it actually was an island. I guess it has to be a “high high tide” for that, which it wasn’t that morning.

Almost there...

I was glad that I had arrived early as even though it was late October, there were a lot of tourists showing up, mostly on the shuttle buses. Sure, it was half-term, a week’s holidays for kids in school, but I couldn't imagine the place in the summer.

Pretty impressive.

The ramparts.

After climbing the first few sets of stairs and passing through a small drawbridge, I walked along a narrow cobblestone road that slowly worked its way up toward the main attraction, the Abbey at the top of the island. I figured that it made sense to hit that first and then work my way back down.

Entering the village...complete with a drawbridge. And some people actually live here!

Starting up the narrow street lined with shops, restaurants and even a few museums.

Where's the high tide?

I’m not a religious person, but it does sometimes blow me away the effort that people in the past have put into expressing their devotion to their beliefs. The Abbey and the whole complex must have been a massive amount of effort to construct. Impressive indeed.

Up on the balcony of the Abby.

Inside the Abbey. It was built over centuries but started around the year 708!

Looking back to the entrance.

Since I decided not to do the audio guide (churches and abbeys are not my thing)...I'm not sure what the point of this area was...apart from being a nice cloister.

A lovely room...but not sure of its purpose, perhaps a dining hall?

This was called the "Crypt of the Great Pillars"...me likey.

Peering down at part of the village through an old window.

On the ramparts.

I just liked the look of the pillars from this angle.

So this is a big wheel that was used to pull up goods from the outside, up a steep ramp. It's essentially a big hamster wheel for humans.

Another view of it. I'm not sure if more than one person could fit in there at the same time, but I'm assuming it would be necessary.

Tough to see the ramp from this angle, but it was steep. On the right, there is the modern one that starts by that bit of yellow.

I took this photo later, but this is looking up the ramp.

This is the sled that the goods would have been strapped to.

More pillars...

Looking out to sea...it was a disappointing high tide.

There was some impressive construction, considering when it was built.

I just felt like I was transported back to the middle ages...

After wandering around most of the island for a couple of hours, I decided it was time to catch a shuttle back about 2/3’s of the way back and then walk to Octi. But not before stopping to buy my first baguette on this visit to France. It would be a key ingredient for one of my favourite European lunches, combined with some ham, some good cheese, mayo, pepper, cilantro and some pickled onions (this is my English heritage coming out, I bought 8 jars of pickled onions for this trip before I left Auntie Shirley’s).

Oh, I must be in France...a baguette vending machine!