Following Rick’s advice in his book on Normandy, we went to the island early (got there around 9:30) to beat the crowds in August. As he suggested, we veered to the left before the main gate and went under the arch with the National Gendarmerie sign and went up the cobblestone pathway. That way avoids the throngs at the main gate and leads up to the Abbey. We had that pathway virtually to ourselves. We got our “avoid the ticket line” tickets online and breezed right into the Abbey. After leaving the Abbey through the Abbey gardens, we were able to use the main road back down to the gate by staying to the extreme right and letting the other modern day pilgrims move up to the Abbey on the left. We stayed on the island about 3 hours, which we found to be about the right time for us. Despite the crowds, it is worth it!
Posted by
681 posts
I glad you enjoyed Mont St Michel. It is one of "my" magical places in Europe. I was there around 15 years ago (WOW time flies). We stayed overnight on the Mont. After all the tourists leave you have the place to yourself. I swear I could hear the horses clopping on the cobblestone paths and the knights talking all around us. It was great. Probably should not have had so much wine LOL
Posted by
Wheaton
60 posts
Thank you for your report. We plan on visiting next June. Did do a day trip from Paris or were you elsewhere? What mode of transportation did you take? Did you feel like 3 hrs was sufficient?
Thank you.
Grace
Posted by
OP
West Coast Florida
138 posts
Grace, we had a car and drove from Rouen. I’d say 3 hours is a good amount of time to see everything. At least it was for us.
Posted by
MO, AL, and now Bentonville, AR
49 posts
So glad you enjoyed it. We spent the night there 5 years ago and it was one of the highlights that we still talk about from that trip to France.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6447 posts
We were there in September 2017. We also stayed about 3 hours. We timed things to get to the abbey (top) about 15 minutes before opening. For us opening was 9am. It took just a couple minutes to get tickets. We had about an hour or so before any quantity of people showed up and the abbey was peaceful.
We stayed the night before a couple miles from the shuttle lot. We got amazing photos of MSM over the farm fields at the "golden hour". We also went over to the island at about 5pm or so and got lots of nice pics from the bridge. There were very few people. I think they were all in the super busy restaurants on the causeway between the shuttle lot and MSM. The restaurants seem to be owned by the same company. We had an absolutely awful meal. The worst meal in four trips to France.
When you visit take a quick look at tide hours. At high tide, the bridge/road to the highway is less apparent and you get a glimpse of what the island used to look like.
Posted by
OP
West Coast Florida
138 posts
We headed others advice and avoided the hotels and restaurants on the causeway at La Caserne, opting to stay in Pontorson, a 15 minute drive away. We had an excellent meal at Les Relais Gascon in Pontorson...the best mussels in Europe! Prices quite reasonable and the house wine good and inexpensive.
Posted by
Franklin, TN, USA
920 posts
Like Mary we stayed on the island 3 years ago and checked a bucket list item off for us.....it was magical. We loved it and made a very special memory for us!
Posted by
Temple,Tx
418 posts
We were in Bayeux for a D-day tour and stayed at the Churchill hotel. Luckily, they had a day trip from the hotel to Mont St Michel. We rode in a van for about 1.5 hours. We had 3 hours at the Mont and then the van took us back to Bayeux. We had light showers off and on all day. When we left the Mont to walk back to the shuttle pick-up spot..... the skies opened up. We had great rain jackets but our legs were drenched. When we got on the shuttle and then the parking lot, I had to pour rain water out of my shoes. My pants and socks were wet for the trip back to Bayeux and then we waited in the lobby for 2 hours until it was time to go to the train station and Paris. Loved our visit there and we have a great experience to go with our visit. It was still a special moment on our trip to France in September 2017.