Tired with what I have to do these past days. It seems that I'm taking more than 9 credits. I think it's better if I sit back in front of my laptop and once again share my journey and passions. It's been a while I didn't post any subject about my journey, especially those during my childhood. While thinking of what I should write this time, the thought of the floating abbey on
Normandy, the famous northern region of France that was once the site of a war during the World War II in 1944 (
the invasion of France or the OVERLORD on June 6, 1944 by
General Eisenhower), passes by. No, no, I'm not going to talk about war (I hate war), but I'm going to introduce you to one of the world's wondrous abbeys preserved by the UNESCO since 1979. It is
Le Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel, an abbey with a small town surrounding it, located on a beach at
Lower Normandy, 201 miles west of
Paris.
Le Mont-Saint-Michel is a small, rocky, cone-shaped island in the Gulf of Saint-Malo, located just off the cost of the Department of Manche, the region of the Lower Normandy. Before the site was built with the small town and the abbey, the islet was known as Mont-Tombe. In the 8th century, the Bishop of a nearby Avranches (another region of Lower Normandy, Department of Manche), Saint Aubert, had a vision of the archangel Saint-Michel. In commemoration, he built an oratory on the 256 foot high granite outcropping and named it Mont-Saint-Michel. The construction of the spectacular Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel started in 1023 and finished some 400 years later.
The Benedictines built an abbey, on this spot, in 966. King Philip II of France tried to capture the Mont in 1203, but merely succeeded in partially burning down the abbey. Philip paid for his folly by underwriting the construction of the three-tiered La Merveille buildings, on the north side of the Mont. These buildings rise majestically to the pointed spire of the abbey church.
During the 18th century, the monastery substantially declined. By the beginning of the French Revolution, in 1787, the French government had dissolved the monastery. At that time there were but seven monks in residence. Under Napoleon I, who reigned from 1804 to 1815, Mont-Saint-Michel became a state political prison until 1863. In 1874, the French government designated it as an historic monument and restored it. It was connected to land by a 3000 foot long causeway built in 1875.
The small town surrounding the abbey gives the sense of the ancient European. Street malls, Bars, Restaurants, Pawn Shops, Souvenirs Shops, etc., are distributed in such a way in that you fill you're dwelling back to the 16th century of France.
I remember that in my childhood, I visited this site couple of times. We always left our apartment during the dawn, if not during the early morning, since it took so long to reach Lower Normandy from the outskirt of Paris. Since I was too little, all I remember was the creepy, eery feeling, visiting the ancient abbey, monastery which was also a medieval castle (chateau). It has two large towers to defend the entrance to the castle.
Now that I value historical and artistic sites, I kinda regreat for not having the chance to revisit the place in 2002. It's just amazing to imagine that these ancient people were able to build a town, abbey, and monastery off a shore in 1023, fashioned from granite, delicating contours as an extension of the shape of the island and encompassing a range of architectural styles, from Norman to Gothic.
Below are pictures of me when I was little, visiting the site. I am the little boy sitting on the left side of the 30-something man (my Dad), woman (my Mom), and a cute little baby (my Brother) standing next to her. The next picture was taken on the parking lot, in front of the islet (me held by a family friend, my Mom holding my baby Brother's stroller).
Well, curious enough to visit this ancient abbey? Why not book your flight, pack your bag and enjoy your travel? ;-) Or you're still not quite sure? Take a look at this poem below (I didn't write this poem):
Mt. St.Michael (by Robyn Schwartz @ 10/23/01)
=============================
It rises up in the deceiving distance
Like a beacon to the wretched and weak
As the lighthouse at Alexandria once opened the seas
To weary travelers, drunk on sea salt and night.
The waves crash on its forgotton stones
Slowly washing away one thousand years
But Mount St. Michael is eternal.
The spirits in the catacombs sleep silent
Remembered in the chants on the monks.
As the ghostly brothers wander the halls
Drinking secrets from the ancient chalice
And tending the grapes for their moonshine wine.
So sacred a place, the stairs need guard it,
Winding in dozens up steep narrow passages
Up and up to the nearing warm skies
'Til you reach a breezy gothic chapel
So high you can hear the prayers in the walls
And echoing in the lulling lowly waves
Tamed and bowing seemingly a mile beneath.
Is it a house of God or a fortress of war?
Candlelight of hope or dimness of despair?
No matter, for the people still come
The devoted, the curious and above all the lost
Searching for answers in the carvings,
A lost soul within the tombs
Or inner peace through the stained glass windows of time.
