Saint-Malo and Mont Saint-Michel
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World famous for its unique location and the beauty of its architecture, Mont Saint-Michel is one of France’s main monument attractions. It offers us an unforgettable view!
Come discover Mont Saint-Michel’s magnificent medieval site nicknamed “The Wonder of the Western World”. Visit the fortified city of Saint-Malo, capital of the corsairs and one of Brittany’s most beautiful beaches…
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MONT SAINT-MICHEL“Wonder of the Western World”, Mont Saint-Michel stands at the center of a huge bay dominated by Europe’s strongest tides. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it welcomes close to 3.5 million visitors yearly; both pilgrims and ordinary tourists. At the request of the archangel Michael, “field commander of the Army of God”, Aubert, bishop of Avranches, built and devoted the first church on October 16, 709. In 966, at the request of the Duke of Normandy, a community of Benedictines settled on the rock. Its pre-Romanesque style church was therefore built before the year 1000. During the 11th century, the Romanesque style abbey was built atop a group of crypts at the rock’s peak. The original buildings of the religious community were propped against its north wall. |
Photo : afloresm/Flickr |
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Photo : CIJP |
The Abbey, a monumental masterpiece During the 12th century, the Romanesque style religious community buildings were expanded to the west and south.
In the 13th century Philip II Augustus, king of France, following the conquest of the Normandy region, donated money which made possible the construction of the Gothic style “Merveille”: two three-story buildings crowned by the cloister and refectory. During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Hundred Years' War made it necessary to protect the Abbey with a set of fortifications which allowed it to survive a siege lasting over thirty years. The Abbey church’s Romanesque style choir collapsed in 1421, and was replaced by a flamboyant Gothic style choir at the end of the Middle Ages. This impressive spiritual and intellectual nexus was, along with Rome and Santiago de Compostela, one of the most important pilgrimage routes of the medieval West. Over nearly one thousand years men, women and children came via routes called “paths to Paradise” to request eternal life from the Archangel of Judgement, “judge of souls”. |
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The cloister, an architectural wonder It’s an unlikely garden, perched atop an arid rock. As level as a hand, here where all is but steep slopes. So far up, eighty meters above ground level, this garden floats in the sky, open to the huge bay where sand and sea intermingle.
After admiring the Abbey, you’ll be able to contemplate the unique beauty of the Bay by going down the curtain wall path, or the roundabout path on your left bordered by small gardens, which you can get to from the Fanils porch. |
Photo : CIJP |
Photo : Pixabay |
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| The cloister | La baie du Mont St Michel |
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Photo : CIJP |
SAINT-MALOSaint-Malo is without a doubt one of the most memorable cities in the Brittany region. It’s considered the jewel of the Emerald Coast, at the center of an extremely developed tourist area. Its stones have inspired the greatest adventure seekers and many famous authors. The richness of the accumulated Malouin heritage showcases the major events of the city’s history. You’ll find nine official historical monuments in Saint-Malo: the palace, curtain walls and Solidor Tower, “Fort National”, Saint-Vincent Cathedral and Gicquelais Hotel, birthplace of Chateaubriand. 80 other buildings were later added to the Supplementary Inventory, including roughly 60 located within its walls.
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A bit of history
Founded during the 6th century by the Welsh monk Saint-Maclow, whose name it bears, the Gaulish, then Roman, and finally Malouin community began at Saint-Servan, which was originally called Aleth. Too vulnerable to invaders, Bishop John of the Grating moved its government to the rock, a high-tide island, during the 12th century which is when the old city was founded. At the end of the 15th century Anne of Brittany, via her successive marriages to Charles VIII and then Louis XII annexed the Duchy of Brittany to the Kingdom of France. During the 16th century its sailors scoured all the Earth’s oceans. Jacques Cartier discovers Canada. Surcouf and Duguay-Trouin, the King’s Corsairs, conquered several strongholds, making Saint-Malo the Kingdom’s wealthiest city. |
Photo : CIJP |
Program
Saturday’s program:
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Sunday’s program :
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Tarifs and Dates
Price: starting from €140Included in price:
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Tours Coming Up!: |