Mont St-Michel Day 14: La Marveille
First stop: The Abbey, La Marveille (The Marvel). There was supposed to be a free English tour at 11 but since I was the only one who needed it, there wasn't critical mass (minimum 6 people). Fortunately, one of the counter guys took pity on me that I'd come so far and gave me the tour anyway. He even gave me a Neolithic flint as a bonus, which he got from his dig site (amateur archeologist).Curiously, only 20% of the 4 million visitors to the Mont visit the abbey, which I don't understand. The Mont is the abbey. It is amazing both for the engineering as the architecture, and its isolation on top of the island in the middle of the sea gives it an outer-worldly feel.
Some highlights:
1) Everything about the abbey is so well-structured and thought of, divided into 2 main mirror sections with 3 floors each -- one side for prayer and another for work (feeding the pilgrims, feeding the intellect: work room, feeding the soul: cloister).
The cloister
The Church
2) For what was supposed to be the dark ages, they were pretty good at hauling granite back and forth to make the foundation strong enough to build successfully on top of a rock pyramid, with these huge pillars for support.
3) Archangel Michael
4) The enormous wheel that served as a pulley for hoisting provisions to the prisoners when the abbey was turned into a prison in the 19th century. Apparently, the prisoners were made to run like hamsters to make the gigantic wheel go round. Funny.
The end of the visit coincided with the mass which I was fortunate enough to attend. It was all in French so I could only pick up a word or two. Most of it was in song anyway which sent chills down my spine. But like mass at St. Peter's, it's an experience to go through a ceremony which has in essence, remained unchanged (even the songs were in old French), the end blessing of which was sought after by millions of pilgrims from all over.
There are 4 museums to go to in the afternoon and a ticket to 1 conveniently gives you access to the others. Sounds like a lot but each musei is designed to be enjoyed in 20 minutes max. Skippable if time is short -- mostly, it gives you an account of the abbey's history (which you would have heard from the tour), with some healthy self-patting-on-the-back as the French are wont to do.
Last thing... the oysters I had for lunch were just fab. The freshest stuff I've had where the oyster cringes when you put lemon on it. Yuuuuummmmm...
posted by moan @ 10:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home