The Mont Saint Michel experience

"The Wonder of the Western World"

A French commune with a population of 50 - there are both monks and nuns in residence, I have no idea how many - this island should have both a mayor and a Town Hall (Mairie).  However the thousands of visitors daily jostling/squeezing their way up or down the spiral road to the abbey doors make it rather difficult to locate either the mayor or his official abode.

Since 2012 millions of euros have been spent - and arguably wasted - in making this site more attractive to tourists.  A vast car park located a couple of kilometres from the site means that visitors can either walk or travel by shuttle bus to reach their destination free of charge.  Or there is a horse-drawn carriage plying the route at I know not at what expense to visitors.

Car parking fees: for up to 2 hours, about 3 euros, and for more than 2 hours cost about 11 euros.  However, providing more parking space for visitors does not mean that there is any more space on the island to accommodate them.

This Grand Project (a French speciality) was also designed to make the island a real island once more, at any rate at high tide.  The silting of the Coesnon river required major engineering works; and now there is a bridge over which you are of course not permitted to drive.

Who cares?  Well, I do.  Not that many years ago you could drive across the dunes in the early morning and park at the town gate, making sure that your car was safe from the high tides.  And you didn't have to pay!

A final comment: the shuttle buses are appalling boxes coated in brown: you can just discern one a little to the left of the centre of the photo.  No doubt an instance of French irony.