Mont-Saint-Michel through the ages

Mont-Saint-Michel in 1250

The Marvel New-Built

This is Mont-Saint-Michel at the abbey's Gothic height: the three-storeyed Merveille stands barely a generation old above the rock and the island draws pilgrims from across the flats. The walk follows the low-tide crossing and climbs the single street of inns to the Grand Degré, then onto the abbey platform, cloister and terraces that look out over Tombelaine and the salt meadows.

A compact granite cone rises from tidal sands, its silhouette crowned by the abbey church and the newly completed three-storeyed Merveille; pale Caen-stone capitals and thin pointed vaults puncture grey walls. A single narrow street of timber-fronted inns and shell-sellers snakes up within stout town walls, while outside the mount the bay opens to vast flats, Tombelaine islet and salt-meadow pastures grazed by small flocks.

Planned from the Wikipedia record: Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey.