In 708 AD, the Archangel Michael is said to have appeared to Bishop Aubert — and, when ignored, pressed a finger into his skull. Where the angel touched him, the bishop was left with a hole. The relic, complete with the hole, is still kept in nearby Avranches.
Medieval builders then cantilevered an entire Gothic abbey off the cliff — “the Wonder of the West.” The cloister alone rests on 277 slender granite columns, 80 m above a tidal bay where Normandy meets Brittany.
The real spectacle is the tide: the bay has Europe’s largest tidal range, and the sea rushes back fast enough to seal the mount into an island within hours. Hidden quicksand means you should never cross the flats alone.
14 m. the largest in Europe — tide “as fast as a galloping horse”