Historical travel text: this page adapts an older Klein-Singen.de article.
Although Mont-Saint-Michel is officially in Normandy rather than Brittany, it has long been one of the major destinations for travellers staying in the region.
The crowds can make it easy to forget that this was an ancient pilgrimage site. For more than a thousand years people travelled toward the sanctuary of the Archangel Michael. The abbey developed over centuries into the extraordinary architectural complex visible today.
The tidal setting is inseparable from the monument. Water, sand, causeways and the distant silhouette continually change with weather and light.