For sheer architectural splendor, it's hard to beat the French monastery of Mont Sant-Michel. Situated at the mouth of a river that spills out into the Atlantic and surrounded by mud flats submerged at high tide, this structure reflects mankind's enduring struggle to subjugate nature.
Instructions
1. Arrive via rental car, bus or taxi. Do not try it the old-fashioned way by wading the 2 miles across the mud flats. Those flats are full of quicksand and can flood rapidly at high tide. Going by way of the causeway is a much safer bet.
2. Enter the village on the south side, at Porte de l'Avancée, and proceed up the Grande Rue, which curls around the mountain and is lined with tacky gift shops. Enter the monastery on the east side. Explore on your own or take a guided tour. Work your way around the south side of the complex, up the vertiginous stairs and the Western Terrace.
3. Head into the Abbey Church, which has a Norman/Romanesque nave and Gothic choir. Proceed north into the Cloitre or Cloister, which is lined with marble columns erected in a sort of zigzag pattern. The north side of the monastery is referred to as La Merveille--the Marvel--because it was built so quickly.
4. Continue east into the lengthy Réfectoire, where the monks once ate. In the southeast corner, step down the stair tower to the Salle des Hôtes, a formal chamber used for the reception of royal and noble personages. West of this is the Salle des Chevaliers, where visiting knights were received.
5. Go south, and then east into the Crypt of the Thirty Candles. Backtrack and go west through the Promenoire des moins. Turn south down the Galerie Nord-Sud and southeast through the mortuary Chapel Saint-Etienne. Beyond that, you'll see the Ossuaire, where the bones of long-dead monks were stacked and where you'll find a supply lift. The Chapel Saint-Martin, the crypt and the Abbot's quarters are nearby.
6. Descend to the ground floor and pass through the gift shop--the former Aumônerie, or alms-house--and the cellar to exit out into the garden. Also on this level is the Salle de 'Aquilon and the underground chapel of Notre-Dame Sous-Terre. Exit at the east gate. You might choose to eat in the village or stay the night, but you'd be better served on the mainland.
Tags: east into, high tide, lined with, south side