Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stands, Le mont Michel, emerging out of the sea and mist. A Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site."Inscription as a 'World Heritage Site'– UNESCO

Mont-Saint-Michel is an amazing site, the rocky island topped by its fortified Abbey and enveloped in mist looms out of the flat, surrounding bay. A sense of mystery surrounds all. According to Bishop Aubert, he was ordered to build the church by the Archangel Michel in the 8th century, it then became a Benedictine monastery and renowned as a center of medieval learning.

Pilgrims have been coming here for a thousand years, and today’s tourist follow the same narrow walkway to the Abbey, but once inside the church there is a sense of monastic serenity. There is still a small Benedictine community living in the abbey. There are many things to see and do: the main street with its shops, the museums, the walk around the ramparts with views out over the sands of the bay, as well as the spectacle of the sea rushing in to surround the Mont at each high tide. The Abbey can also be visited at night when it is lit up.

In 708, a dream led Saint Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, to create a shrine to Saint Michael at this site. Mont Saint-Michel then became one of the major pilgrimage destinations in medieval Christendom

In 966, the Duke of Normandy entrusted the sanctuary to the care of the Benedictines of Saint Wandrille. The monks built a magnificent abbey which the Middle Ages considered as the image of the Heavenly Jerusalem on earth. In the 11th and 12th centuries, they constructed a Romanesque monastery with the church on the top of the hill. A part of this abbey burned down in 1204. It was replaced by the famous "batiment de la Merveille", a building constructed north of the church in a few years' time that includes halls for the pilgrims and rooms strictly reserved to the monks (scriptorium, refectory). Then from the middle of the 13th century to the beginning of the 16th century, the monks completed the ring around the church on the east and south by constructing the abbot's residence and buildings to house the abbey's legal and administrative services. During the Hundred Years' War, the village at the foot of the abbey was surrounded by massive ramparts.

The heroic resistance of Mont Saint-Michel to the English made the abbey a national symbol. The choir of the church, which collapsed in 1421, was replaced by a Flamboyant Gothic structure. The abbey is thus an exceptional example of the full range of medieval architecture. In 1790, the monks left their monastery which was then used as a prison until 1863. After it was designated a historical monument in 1874, major works were undertaken to restore the monument to its former splendour. (Ref Site Monuments Nationaux)