Notes from a quick visit last October, and despite initial worries about all the major work going on, I seriously believe it will be making major improvements to this World Class site, in both reducing the numbers of people at any one time, and also hopefully allowing the mont to return to its rightful natural position in the sea.
"Getting a late lunch, we decide to go to Mont St Michel for a quick look around. Shouldn't be too busy at this time of year.
It has all changed since I was last here, and you now have to park miles away, at what is becoming a sort of holiday village resort. Many huge car parks, some hotels and restaurants etc, and a 40 min walk to the Mont, but free shuttle busses are provided. At this point I was ready to give up and drive away, but Dad still wanted to persevere, so we got the shuttle bus 10 mins out to the Mont.
There's a heck of a lot of work going on here, both to repair the walls and also to the surroundings. They are trying to cut off the Mont again, to get the sea to surround it once more, and this involves removing the old causeway which prevented the tide clearing the silts etc, and just have a sort of bridge going out to the Mont. This and alterations to the river should then mean the silts get washed away, and the sea once more claims the Mont at each high tide.
I read at the new controlling dam on the river that the land has risen 4.9 metres since the 1960s. Much of these new grassy marshes is being dug up and pushed into the river, hopefully to get washed away.
The place is not too crowded, so we walk up to the abbey along the main street, no time to do the tour. Walk down around the outer walls, watching the tide coming in, and theres a group of people out walking over the sands and mud with the water coming in. Must visit here properly sometime, October Thursday mornings might be OK, but need the whole day.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road