MONT-SAINT-MICHEL

Remember in "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy and her friends are in the field and see Oz in the distance?????  I had a similar feeling this week when David and I took a few days and went to Mont-Saint-Michel, a hilltop abbey just off the Normandy and Brittany coasts in northwest France.

Mont-Saint-Michel

The town of Mont-Saint-Michel is a nice one of mostly hotels and restaurants to accommodate some of  the nearly 2.5 million annual visitors to the abbey.  Our hotel was nice and clean and had a restaurant which we enjoyed several times, not to mention our choice for breakfast.  There are also hotels on the island for visitors but many of the visitors are just here for the day and don't spend the night.

Hotel Le Relais du Roy

This is the bar but the dining room looks the same

Not far from our hotel was a relatively new dam with a wood-plank bridge and seating where you could look out and see the abbey in the distance.  Our first night there, after dinner, we sat on the bridge in awe of this majestic edifice in the distance.  The moon was shining and the atmosphere was quiet and you see this "castle" rising in the sky...like reaching to God.  Sitting there I was overwhelmed by it...perhaps like Dorothy when she first viewed Oz!!  David is a little more "spiritual" in this case than me...he thought about all the pilgrims who had laboriously walked long distances to worship at the abbey.  Ok, that too!!!!

There is a causeway connecting our little town with the abbey that you can cross by foot, bicycle, horse-drawn carriage or bus.  The next morning we opted to take the carriage.

I do love a carriage ride!!!

Arriving on the island, you are met by beach on most sides where people (and especially those with children it seemed) enjoyed the space and openness.

Beach surrounding the island

From there, the only way is up!!  It seems there are two ways to the top---we took the narrow, cobblestone walk packed with tourists,  most of whom were looking for the best treasure in the myriad of gift shops along the way.  Thousands of people, seniors, young adults, singles, families and small children.  It was a madhouse, not the serene environment I'd envisioned.  What was I thinking??!!

Shoulder-to-shoulder all the way!

We climbed...and climbed...and climbed!!  I thought we would never reach the abbey.  Fortunately, I am finally able to do a walk like this so we were able to reach the abbey where benedictine monks once lived.

There were little "pockets" along the climb where you could stop and rest.  Luckily, I didn't need to do that!!!!

The views were beautiful,  and the abbey had many rooms that were reached by curving staircases, narrow passageways and dark cellars.  Actually, it was a little disappointing to me😞.  In all the churches we've gone into and even the abbey where we attended the spring retreat, I felt a reverence when entering the rooms.  Here, I was so busy watching where I was walking so I wouldn't fall or run into people that by the time I reached an open space, I felt no quiet...no peace.  Just relief I had arrived safely.

I wonder what everyone else was looking for in this place???

This beautiful, majestic, castle-like abbey from a distance became just another tourist trap up close.  It didn't feel holy or reverent.  It didn't make me thoughtful or pensive.  In fact, it made me a little anxious and claustrophobic in many areas.  Maybe Dorothy felt the same way when she got to Oz and the Wizard rejected them!!  Perhaps it's difficult to maintain a place to share without commercialism taking over to help provide the funds to pay for that maintenance.  I don't know.  But, like David, when I could find a bit of space where I could feel a little quiet, I did wonder about those wanderers who came here from a great distance for a solemn purpose.

A little peace where I could read a little history to feel, for a moment,  what happened here

So,  for me in 2018, I guess sometimes things are better from a distance...when I can reflect on "what was" rather than seeing "what is".