One of France's most iconic landmarks, celebrates its 1,000th birthday this year. Here are five things to know about the site
The Mont Saint-Michel, one of France's most iconic landmarks, celebrates its 1,000th birthday this year.
To mark the occasion, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday was to visit the rock-top abbey-islet in Normandy, which is completely cut off by sea dozens of times a year.
Here are five things to know about the site:
In 966, a group of Benedictine monks founded a church there, with the extraordinary Gothic-style abbey perched on the pinnacle of the island following in 1023.
Over the years the monument has served many functions—a fortress during the Hundred Years' War between England and France, it was a prison during the French Revolution when it was known as the "Bastille of the seas".
While it has long been a popular place of pilgrimage, it has also become a tourist mecca, packed with souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels.
In 2022, the island attracted nearly 2.8 million visitors, with some 36,000 cramming into an area covering under 4 square kilometres on one day alone (August 18).
The silt that built up around the road held back the tide, preventing the island from being cut off.
Between 2005-2015, around 230 million euros was spent on returning the site to the sea, including flushing out excessive sand and silt and replacing the road with a wooden footbridge.
The investment paid off.
Mont Saint-Michel is now surrounded by water between 50 and 90 times a year.
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In 2022, tightrope walker Nathan Paulin trialled a new approach when he walked 2,200 metres along a wire suspended 114 metres above the bay, breaking the record for longest tightrope walk.
Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Margaret Thatcher and Leon Trotsky are just some of the characters to have enjoyed its hospitality.