From Paris we took a TGV train to Rennes and transferred to a bus to Mont-St-Michel, across the rural borderlands of Normany and Brittany. The bus dropped us on the causeway to the island. The island crowned by a staggeringly tall Romanesque cathedral is a truly majestic monument, like a miraculous apparition of strength rising out of the sea.
The island is incredibly touristy however, its narrow paths crammed full of pilgrims and tourists. The businesses catering to tourists must have been around for many centuries, even if they didn't sell the same trinkets and the same meals centuries ago. The cathedral is not heavy on museum quality artifacts - supposedly the place was looted back in the revolution times and did not house active worship for a very long time. Looking a long ways down we saw horseback riders and hikers scattered on the miles of tidal sands surrounding the island, much like how its defenders of yesteryear would have kept watch of potential invaders.
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