Saying that Mont St. Michel is a bucket list destination in France is no exaggeration. Seriously.
The Mont is a fortified city made of stone and rock that from afar looks a lot like an island castle. It stands alone in the sand and water, and with nothing else in the surrounding area, it's essentially in the middle of nowhere.
It's man made of course but it looks very organic and natural and almost makes one wonder if it sprang up from the ground one day of its own accord. It's really no wonder that so many people are drawn to it.
My inlaws wanted to see the Mont during their visit to France so my wife and I obliged. We had visited the site previously during covid and we had a pretty incredible experience there, so we were happy to go again and were excited for them to experience the magic of the location.
We coordinated a trip to the site and drove the 4 hours from where we were living at the time and we arrived early in the morning.
During our first visit the country was essentially locked down to tourists and we also went in the off season during the month of May so it wasn't crowded or busy at all for us then.
This time around the country had long since opened up its doors to tourists and we were visiting during peak season, in the middle of August. There were already a lot of people there when we arrived in the early morning.
This time was much different to say the least. People were coming in droves and it was absolutely packed almost to the point of bursting. It seemed that overtourism had hit the site hard. But you don't have to take my word for it, you will see it for yourself in my photos.
If you want to compare the two trips free to view my original post Here.
Even just getting into the place was next to impossible. The front gates created a bottle neck so it took quite some time to inch forward in the sea of people. There were a few baby carriages in the crowd as well that really added to the chaos. They moved slowly and needed a lot of space to maneuver.
The few streets inside were packed to the gills as well. We sort of just made due with the situation and moved about as best we could.
It could be helpful to pull over to the side when things started to feel a little too claustrophobic.
Like to get ice cream for instance.
This particular spot (above) was like ants pouring out of an anthill. Too many humans in one place can be almost a little disgusting in way. I'm sure that you get what I mean.
One positive thing was that the abbey required a pre-bought ticket with a specific time slot to go inside to tour it.
That really helped keep numbers down in there and made the experience more enjoyable.
We had purchased tickets long in advance so we headed into the abbey and had a little reprieve from the crowds.
I actually felt like I could breath a little in there.
The Abbey was basically just a large gothic church cathedral, much like any other in the country of France. However, there was something impressive about it too. Maybe it was just knowing the context of where it was built?
The outer balcony was massive and had an incredible 180° view of the surroundings.
The inner courtyard was pretty neat as well.
I liked the architectural features there, surrounding the patch of grass in the center.
Aside from the main Abbey there was also a smaller chapel located on one of the streets.
It was dedicated to Saint Michael, which was very fitting considering the name of the place.
It would be pretty silly for it to be called Mont St Michel and not have a shrine dedicated to the Saint Michael - am I right?
For this trip we actually stayed in one of the hotels on the island and as the day progressed into the early evening the whole place quite quickly cleared out of all of the tourists.
Once that happened the location became way more enjoyable.
At that point we had the chance to wander around and explore more freely without any crowds getting in the way.
At that time, without all of the excess people around, we could really get a sense of the historic romance of the small town built on the water.
The town itself mostly caters to tourists and consist of just shops, hotels and restaurants at this point; but supposedly there are people who currently live there as well.
According to its tourist website, Mont St. Michel hosts 20 permanent residence and has a mayor, waste and police services, a priest and a postman.. Who knew!?!
To be honest, I can't even imagine living in a place like that with that many tourists around.
It would be my literal nightmare.
I'm guessing that the residents leave for the entire month of August to get away from all of the chaos.
August tends to be a pretty big travel month for French residents.
One thing that I recommend if you do happen to stay on the island or hang around in the evening is to find a spot to watch the sunset.
Alternatively you can do what we did and go to the opposite end of where the sun is setting and watch the Abbey cast a pyramid shadow on the landscape. You can see it in the photo.
It sounds kind of silly because it's just a shadow but the novelty of it was actually pretty cool in person.
Something else that we tried on this trip that I never thought we would do was eat the famous egg omelet at Madame Poulards. It's a souffled egg cooked over a wood fire.
My wifes grandfather had eaten at the restaurant and tried the omelet when he had visited the site decades before and he wanted us to have that experience as well so he very generously bought dinner for the family that night. The omelet was actually quite good too.
Conclusion
As you may have pieced together in reading this, my review of the location is somewhat of a mixed.
On the one hand the location is a sort of magical almost fairytale village located in a very impressive setting.
However, its such a small place with ridiculous amounts of tourists trying to see it around the same time and the crowds make the experience anything less than enjoyable.
There is no doubt that Mont St Michel suffers from over tourism in a very big way.
There really is a lot of good and bad about it.
If you do plan to visit the site and care to hear my advice, I would suggest visiting it in the off season and also plan to stay on the mont until later in the evening when all of the tourists have left for the day.
You can try staying in one of the hotels on site as well to really get that exclusive feeling of having the Mont to yourself at night. Whatever you decide, good luck in your travel adventures.
That could be a great place to visit, but sheesh all those fucking tourists, that would ruin it for me which is a shame as it would be a great little wander.
At first my eyes were deceiving me as I thought you were in the wrong country
There is a similar Mount St Michael, off the coast of Cornwall
Have driven past it many times when in Penzance, but I haven't visited, you can only walk to it during low tide, other times you have to jump in a boat!
I saw that there was one in the UK as well. It's so similar looking. The one in France used to be the same in terms of only being able to go at certain times of the day. That was before they built the elevated roadway. You used to have to know the tide schedule to determine the access times.
Good thinking by the French has perhaps been the downfall with a massive tourist influx?
Yeah. It's one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" and then later "we made a horrible mistake!"
Lots of tourism dollars though so 🤷
Kerchiiiiing !
This place has always been on my to go list, but by I'm not quite sure now, the crowd is really off-putting. Probably need to do plan around off peak season if I ever do plan to go
I think that it would be fine in the off season - in April/May or late September/October maybe. It clears out fairly well in the evening too. Just don't go in July / August in the morning / midday. That's terrible. Lol
Wow what a place!!
Seems like such a wonderful place and obvious why it is so popular and choked with visitors.
Can you get a sense info the history of the place, like being able to picture what it was like centuries ago or have they completely done it over for modern tourism?
Either way, being able to discover and visit this place with your family is a gift! What a neat blockchain getaway and glimpse into something I may have never heard of!
The Abbey had a lot of historic information during the tour and all of the homes and buildings have been preserved and maintained to their original character. Most are filled with touristy shops though so it's a combination between history and modern tourism.
Oh, we missed the inner courtyard. We went here last year in August but in the late afternoon. I was able to take photos when there were no people around.
The inner courtyard was in the Abbey. Did you go into the abbey during your visit?
That's good that you went in the evening. It's such a nice place when there are less people around.
We went inside the church and the mass started. But it was very quick because the kids started to get crazy and noisy. XD I thought I could stay and attend the mass.
Oh I see.
Well, Kids will be kids 😂
Aww, I've been wanting to visit this place for a while, last year I was in Paris and because I stayed too short I couldn't arrange for a visit here, I had to drive about 200km to get there, but there will definitely be a next time.
Btw your post is perfect, it will definitely help me to organize a visit here.
Thank you for bringing forward such a special place.
Yeah it's a bit far from Paris but there are some good destinations in the Brittany and Normandy Regions that are fairly close to Mont St Michel. St Malo is close by and others. It's worth going and checking it out.
Yes, I really want to go to this part of France, I hope that in the near future I can do that.
Have a wonderful weekend.
the problem of overtourism is also deeply felt in Italy,but unfortunately nothing is done to solve it.
In my opinion the only thing is to introduce a limited number because with all these people it is difficult to enjoy these places😌
Yeah I don't know how they could regulate such places but they definitely aren't very enjoyable when there are too many people.
Despite habing a lot of travelers that seemed like ants, I so appreciate this place. The picturesque landscape and amazing architecture were so inviting. What a beautiful destination in France!
Yeah it's an impressive location and very beautiful when there aren't so many people there.
Wow, visiting Mont St. Michel sounds like it would be such a unique experience. I can only imagine the difference between seeing it during the off-season versus peak tourist times. Thanks for sharing your tips good friend. I haven't been there before so I'm adding it to my bucket list.
Yeah going during the off season is best if you don't want the crazy crowds. Better yet of you can go during a pandemic that is ideal... 😂
Wait during a pandemic 😂😂😂😂 well there'll be no one else there 🤔
Exactly. That's the beauty of it
Hehehe good one
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This is a unique place without question.
For me, it's enough to see these great photos of yours and other relevant travel shows on TV.
It's like I've already traveled there!
Hive is great for that - vicarious travel through others! 😁
I had this place in my future travel destinations.. thank you for the tips. I hate crowds!
Hopefully it's not too busy if/when you decide to visit.
I had never heard of this before, sen from afar it does look like some organic growth pushing up through the ground.
Those crowds though, yikes! I think I am not so surprised because when I was in Ibiza ,the old town and castle there which gets very crammed with tourists has residents living in it which just seemed nuts. Maybe as you say they go away in peak times. Or perhaps only venture out in the evening!
Yeah in this case it's a very small space with only a few streets so it doesn't take much to fill it up. In August in France a lot of businesses shut down for 3 weeks or so, so a lot of people go traveling, to the south or to their summer homes.
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