Panoramio's Blog

The Mount Saint Michel is a mythical and mystical place, a small rocky island in Normandy (France) just at one kilometre from the north coast.

Mount Saint Michel is an island just half of the time. In ancient times was connected to the land only via a natural sand bridge which was covered by the sea at high tide and revealed at low tide. Today is connected with the mainland by the road you can see in the satellite image. The tides around Mount Saint Michel are dangerous, shift quickly and come in at one metre per second. However nowadays you don’t see very much water around the island because of some polderisation projects carried for centuries. Now there are plans to build a hydraulic dam that will help remove the accumulated silt and make Mont Saint-Michel an island again. It is expected to be completed by 2012.

The main building at the island is the Benedictine Abbey. The church of the abbey built between 11th and 16th centuriesis crowned by a statue of Saint Michael that reaches 155 metres above the sea level and makes the shadow you see over the sand in the mini-panoramio above.

Photographers love this picturesque place that makes possible great shots.

Source: Wikipedia