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.