Mont Saint Michel

According to the MSM website (http://www.bienvenueaumontsaintmichel.com/en/preparing-your-visit/arriving-by-car), there are only a few hours each year when the tides are high enough to make it a true island. Otherwise, you park in the lot a few km away and take a shuttle.

You will enter a massive parking lot operated by the Veolia infrastructure company. Try to pay for the parking at a stand-up machine, just before leaving, so you don't have to try to operate the "last" payment station, blocking the exit gate while fumbling through the window of your car.

You can then walk about 1/2 mile, down a rather commercial avenue separating a bank of on-land modern hotels from restaurants and other tourist services. Along that avenue, you'll find the shuttle bus stop, but you also have the option of walking the entire way, up to the walls of the island. (The shuttle busses are double-ended, because there is no room to turn around at the walls. There is a modern elevated causeway that provides any-tide access to the island. If the tide happens to be low, and you have the right shoes, you can certainly walk on the bay floor, if you wish to.

It is also a bit of an (uphill) hike once you get on the island, to get to the line for entering the abbey. Some visitors choose to take the (better water view) "wall walk" up, and come down the medieval street ON the island after seeing the abbey. But that decision is best made in relation to your eating plans. The wait for an unreserved seated restaurant can be very long in the jammed high season. But there are fast-food and pre-made sandwich counters along the urban street, as well. There is a small supermarket/convenience store along the off-island avenue mentioned earlier, but there is little reason to go all the way back there for a shrink-wrapped sandwich.

If you are spending the night on the mount you are able to park right at the base of the mount (unless that's changed in recent years).

The abbey hours aren't dependent on the tide. When I was there the tide was predicted to cover the road (I didn't stay to watch). A particularly high tide will keep people from entering or leaving the island, for an hour or two, but doesn't shut down the island.

I don't know why but after all the money they spent to build the new bridge, it stops about 10 - 15 meters short of the island and goes down to a lower grade level so that at a normal high tide you end up sloshing through about 10 feet of water that is a few inches deep, at least that is the way it was in September of 2015. I would hope that by now they have decided to finish the job but that is probably asking too much.