Mont Saint-Michel is a French commune in the Manche « département » and Basse-Normandie region with its name originating from a remote rocky island in Europe's largest bay.

The architecture of Mont Saint-Michel and its bay make it the most visited site in Normandy and the second in France (after Île-de-France), drawing more than three million visitors a year. A statue of Saint-Michel at the top of the abbey culminates at 170 metres above sea level. A listed monument as early as 1862, Mont Saint-Michel is also a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.

Tides in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel are likely to impress: with a close to thirteen-metre amplitude on high coefficient days, the sea goes out at great speed on some ten kilometres, only to come back as quickly, « as fast as a galloping horse », as some say.

Nowadays, Mont Saint-Michel only becomes surrounded by water and turns into an island during the high tides of equinox, fifty-three days a year, for just a few hours. Nonetheless an impressive show attracting many tourists at that time.