Walking in the Footsteps of the Saints, Part 3: Mont Saint-Michel!

November 5, 2025

This was an amazingly fun and interesting day, filled with many unique and new experiences for me!  Certainly NOT a new experience was hearing of St. Michael.  I pray for intercession from him regularly to “protect me from the wickedness and snares of the devil” who is certainly alive and well in today’s world. What was new was learning of St. Michael’s appearance to the Bishop of Avranches in 708 AD.  St. Michael appeared in a series of three dreams to him.  In these dreams, St. Michael ordered the bishop to build a sanctuary at a specific location.  The bishop believed it was a demon telling him this and promptly ignored the first two of these dreams.  It made absolutely no sense to him as the location he was to build on was the rocky islet of Mont Tombe.  This mount is located where two rivers converge and enter a bay that leads to the English Channel.  On St. Michael’s third and final visit (again in a dream), St. Michael touched the Bishop’s head which left a hole in the his skull!  Needless to say, the sanctuary soon began construction!  Fun fact:  The Bishop of Avranches’ skull remains on display in Saint-Gervais Basilica in Avranches!  Yep, there is indeed a hole in it!

Due to the salty marsh the sheep graze in, this is one of the few places in the world where you can buy agneau de pré-salė (pre-salted lamb meat)!

Now you've made St. Michael angry!

Logistics of parking being an issue, there is a trolley you take to get to the island.  Maybe I need to explain a bit!  Mont Saint-Michel is an island only part of the time.  At high tide, it becomes an island.  At low tide, it becomes more of a muddy quagmire that you could navigate with galoshes.  In the late 1800s, a raised road was built to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims visiting the site.  

This town (population 50) takes up every bit of this rock!

Excuse me, Sir!  Are you Sir Lancelot by any chance?

The tide is headed out!

Our time In Mont Saint-Michel was fantastic! Once we walked over the drawbridge, we began our walk up a narrow, sloped road, lined with stores and restaurants. Upon reaching the entrance to the abbey, we encountered stairs. Someone in our group counted and it was 355 stairs to the top.  Amazingly, each and every one in our group of 45 made it!  Once we reached the top of the stairs, we entered what very much felt like King Arthur’s castle.  Touring this incredible abbey was nothing less than fascinating. Monks still live here along with several nuns.  Mass is said daily and prayers storm heaven constantly.  I wonder if prayers said here get to heaven any sooner.  They certainly have a good head start given the elevation we were at! 

Gathering and psyching up for the climb!

This building is quite the engineering marvel, as it was built during the middle ages!  Getting supplies here is impressive enough, but it's hard to imagine how they were able to construct it with the tools and equipment that existed in the 700s!  

As this abbey was built in several stages, we saw Roman, Gothic and even modern architectural styles used.  There was a fire in the 1700s and some of it needed to be reconstructed which is when the “modern” architecture entered the scene.  Somehow, the 1700s doesn’t sound all that modern to me!  I guess that’s Europe for you.  Their newest is often older than the USA’s oldest!

The cloister

Inside the abbey church, the highest point of Mont Saint-Michel

Following the tour of Mont Saint-Michel, we celebrated mass at the Church of Saint-Pierre. This church was founded in the eighth century by Saint Aubert, Bishop of Avranches.  Saint Aubery wanted to provide a burial place for himelf. Clearly, the mark of St. Michael touched more than this man’s skull.  He wanted his earthly body’s final resting spot to be right there!

The Church of Saint-Pierre

During Mass, I couldn’t help noticing a woman standing in the entryway who faithfully watched Father as he consecrated the bread and wine. I observed her as she blessed herself, making the sign of the cross, before turning to leave.  Being seated so close to the door, I couldn’t refrain from inviting her to partake in receiving the Eucharist with us.  She didn’t speak English, so I’m not sure she fully understood me but I listened to her as she referred to Father Chinna as "Popo". I’m not sure what her hesitation was, but she was endearing.  In the end, she left, without receiving the blessed sacrament.  I couldn’t help but wonder if, as much of the world has, she had stepped away from attending Mass and as a tourist here, found herself drawn to the doorstep of Mass. I also wonder if I planted a seed in inviting her to return to Mass and fully partake in receiving the Eucharist. It’s such an amazing blessing to nourish our bodies and souls when we receive communion.  I pray, if I’m at all understanding this woman, that at some point she does return.

As had become customary, following Mass, Father Chinna blessed any religious items we had purchased.  Besides items for myself, I had been gathering up religious medals and memorabilia to bring home as gifts; after all, Christmas is not all that far away!  It was a blessing to be able to have these items blessed! (I bet you saw what I did there!)

For lunch, we were considering going to a restaurant we had read about online -- La Mère Poulard.  There is a long history (as everything on this island has) for enjoying omelets from this establishment.  When our tour guide also highly recommended this place, it was a done deal!  The recipe for these omelets is a closely-held secret.  What’s not a secret is that the eggs are beaten for a full five minutes in a copper bowl before being cooked over a wood fire in a copper frying pan.  Some wise entrepreneur sells copper kitchenware in a town not far from there!  Smart person!

Enough for two!

Dick and I shared an omelet. Not just any old omelet. This was a very fluffy omelet filled with mashed potatoes, ham and cheese! For dessert, we shared a candied pear served along with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. Yes, we each absolutely did have a glass of fine wine to go along with this meal.  We’re in France after all!  Delicious!

After leaving Mont Saint-Michel, we drove to Château de Breuil where fine Calvados (French apple brandy) has been made since 1954. The farm has 22,000 apple trees comprising over 800 apple varieties. Who knew there were 800 varieties of apples?!?  Calvados in only produced in this region (appropriately named the Calvados region) of Normandy, so getting to experience the production of it and sample the finished product was quite a unique experience!

Once again, this estate has quite the history!  It was built in the 16th century and owned by different prominent families.  In May 1940, Nazis forced the current family that operated the farm to flee for safety. The former Camembert factory then became housing for the Nazis. In 1944, as the Allies fought to liberate Normandy, this farm itself experienced fighting.  Bullet holes are still visible in the barn that housed the Nazis.  

You probably already figured out that the barn then provided housing for the English army! Finally in 1946, when things had settled down and life was returning to “normal”, the English army returned the farm to the owners.  I can only imagine the amount of work that family faced when they returned “home”.  In the end, they decided to convert the farm from producing cheese to distilling Calvados.  If it is at all possible to joke about this situation, there must be a line about being driven to drinking in there! The barn was converted into an aging facility, filled with barrels of fine Calvados. 

Dinner tonight was a group dinner served in our hotel. This was our fourth and final night of staying in Lisieux.  It has been so much fun getting to know other parishioners who came along with us on this amazing pilgrimage.  We knew a handful of them before departing but, with each bus ride, meal, Mass, tour… we got to share our experiences next to a new friend.  An unanticipated blessing!

Next up:  Paris!