Mont Saint-Michel timing

We stayed overnight on MSM on the Rick Steves Heart of France tour, and dinner was arranged for us. We toured the Abbey first thing in the morning. So…I cannot tell you timing exactly, BUT I do remember that the bars/restaurants shut down much earlier than we thought they would. There was ONE place to get a pre-dinner drink, and I felt like we only got a late dinner because the tour had arranged it on a private room, but the main dining room was closed. Hopefully someone who has done this recently will have a detailed timeline, but this is for sure a valid question!

Merci jannypanny.

Check the Abbey tour-only (?) entry times carefully.

You'll have to get your Abbey entries ahead of time so this advice might be of little use BUT it's better to do the ramparts if it's not raining! Those stairs (and there are many) are slick when wet. If you can you may want to do the rampart views twice...if you can catch low tide and high tide. Amazingly different!

Thanks for the perspective, all! We've grabbed a 5p-7p slot to see the Abbey and a 745p dinner reservation. We'll plan to walk the ramparts that day, perhaps after dinner (sun sets after 10p in mid-June), and early the next morning as well.

Sounds like a great plan. I'm sure you will enjoy your evening. If you can be an early bird, walking around the island—both ramparts and back alleys—can be really special first thing in the morning.

Thank you, PharmerPhil

Are you staying on the island? My daughter and I were just in MSM and basically did what you have planned. We arrived Saturday May 10, left Sunday May 11. I’m sure the crowds will be bigger in June which will slow you down a bit but this is what we did/hope it helps you with your planning:

We arrived at our hotel at 1:45pm - Le Vieilles Digues (highly recommend. It’s listed in Rick’s guidebook. Ask for room 1,2,3 or 4 to be on first floor with patio). This B&B is off the island/just before the gated access point. We checked in and then walked from our hotel along the Couesnon dyke/river to the Abbey (the owner had a map showing how to safely access the path). It took us about 50 minutes to walk from hotel all the way to the Abbey entrance, stopping for photos along the way /very pretty approach.

Once on the island we followed Rick’s recommendation to take the arch way entrance on the left to avoid the Main Street crowds. It’s a climb/steep ramps in parts, but minimal stairs this way (at least until you get to the Abbey entrance itself but you have to climb those either way). We had reserved tickets for 3pm entrance to the Abbey and were allowed to enter a little early.

Note: if you take the free shuttle bus from the parking lot you will of course arrive on the island earlier and presumably have time to climb some of the ramparts or just work around the crowds if they are heavy (the Main Street is VERY densely packed with people)..

After we left the Abbey (plan 2+ hours to roam through) we walked a bit of the ramparts then walked down the main street, checking out a few gift shops & getting an ice cream before leaving the island and taking the shuttle bus back to the parking lot and then walking from there (10 minutes) to our hotel. There isn’t a sidewalk along the main road this way but there is a small path worn in the grass and we felt safe as minimal traffic was heading toward MSM at that hour. We did not go out onto the flats/sand - weren’t interested.

We had a 7:30pm dinner reservations at Le Ferme which gave us time to relax a bit & change clothes before dinner (we drove to the restaurant - they have free parking at night). If you go to this restaurant - which we also recommend/good food and very pretty inside - try the duck, the sauce was delicious. After dinner we left our car in their parking lot and walked to the Barrage du Mont-Saint-Michel
for some beautiful views of MSM at night (it was still barely dusk at 9:45pm and plenty of people out).

Mont Saint Michel is an amazing place - have a wonderful time!