Mont Saint Michel

Construction of a new dam on the Couesnon.

24 June 1983 : Franois Mitterrand inaugurated the demolition of the dam (submersible) de la Roche Torin.

1995 : Studies are reported honest computer power increased and the computer codes: one can mount the Commission Mont-Saint-Michel, which must preserve its insularity and tourists pay to get regulated.

Hence the project :

• Remove Parking: Parking is another dam built in the south of the Barracks on the Couesnon (dam is rebuilt), and a special shuttle bus will take visitors on a road-bridge at Mont, in the future, a train station will be built on the continent with direct trains from Paris-Vaugirard (Montparnasse-3);
• Next island we know now that we can not fight against nature, we must use cunning, deceit is to make the Couesnon is channelized to either side of Mont-Saint-Michel, 2 / 3 to Britain and the West 1 / 3 to the east in Normandy Dam for dam hunting 700 000 m. Of fish ladders are planned for the eel (catadromous) such as salmon (anadromous).

The ecosystem will be preserved: to keep the 40 male toads was already an excavator stuck in mud, it was necessary to remove the crane and not in tension (see above: quicksand): this excavator was pools do before we can identify and clean out the Couesnon. The entry of sea water will be by surface water (much less turbid) and hunting is brutal for properly venting, as regulated channels, the whole vessel and give a "good appearance" in Mont-Saint- Michel, stripped of its cumbersome parking, but surrounded by a moat "natural".

So, it bars the way to the halophyte Salicornia such as the salt marsh will be contained, and it opens the way to the shuttle neophytes.

The cost of work has increased over time: 72 M in 1999 and 94 million, then 134, then helping the oil crisis, 220 million in 2004: Meanwhile, the mud and it accumulates in of 2.6 mm / year now, about 240 km ^{The work of dredging}

The project manager is named Franois-Xavier de Beaulaincourt.

• The work of dredging the bay of Mont Saint-Michel began on Friday June 16 2006.
• The proposed rail link is refreshed, but many uncertainties remain. In a report , the General Council of Roads detailing options, omitting the rail link established between 1901 and 1938.
• In August 2008, the four first valves are operational in the western part of the new dam on the Couesnon , running into doors afloat while awaiting delivery of four more being installed. The old dam was destroyed in November 2008 .
  The new one is put into service in May 2009 . Withholding water formed at high tide at ebb tide is loosed, generating an effect of "flushing" that should allow the dredging of the bay of Mont Saint-Michel .

Territory and municipal surrounding communities

Apart from the rock, the municipality has two disjoint parts land, bordering the municipalities of Beauvoir and Ardevon ( common associated with Pontorson ).

The most important part, west of the Couesnon , consists of the hamlets of Belmontet, Saincey and Camus, and polders and Molini Tesnires. The western place called the Barracks, the hotel zone that you cross to enter the rock, is the second enclave land .

Demographics

The town hosts up to 20,000 visitors per day during the summer season. Among the 43 reported in 2006 Mons, there are 5 monks and seven nuns.

Municipal Government

The Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem

Since 2001 , brothers and sisters of Jerusalem Monastic occupy part of the Abbey throughout the year. They replace the monks Benedictines , which gradually deserted Mount after 1979.

Every day, the community prays and sings the glory of God within the Mt. This helps attract visitors, many come to attend the various celebrations.

On the occasion of the thirteenth centenary of the Mount, the fraternity has invested heavily, and now even more open to the world.

Pension for a period of one week are possible in summer and winter, to pray, to live in silence with the community, discover their activities ...

Recently, the restoration of a house in the Mount, the "Logis Saint-Abraham" was undertaken by the community. It will in a few years many pilgrims come and spend a few days to pray.

The Festival 13 centuries between sky and sea

In developing the festivities of the 13th anniversary of the founding of the mountain, the Diocese of Coutances and Avranches and Robert Torigni association decided, inter alia, to create a festival of Christian Art to "sensitize the visitor to spiritual side of Mont-Saint-Michel ". This would take place in July 2008 and be consistent with World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney.

Thus, only during the month of July, with the help of Jerusalem Monastic Fraternites Mont-Saint-Michel, two-week festival in full swing, made a week of concerts and varied entertainment (Classical , Gospel ,...) and another exposure (Calligraphy, Bookbinding, Designers ,...) In addition, celebrations, gatherings and other festivities were held in conjunction with World Youth Day in Sydney.

After the festival, the day of reckoning and rang with the success of this edition, it was decided to continue the festival each summer for a week.

Since then, in 2009 and 2010, many artists, singers and visitors have passed through this festival. It is especially important to add that thanks to many volunteers from all over France, for handling this, the reception of visitors, ... that the festival can live fully in the faith and joy.

Festival Director is now Madame de Beaulaincourt.

History

Mont Saint-Michel on a map of 1758.

The ancient history of the town is somewhat separable from the history of the abbey itself, we refer to the article on the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel , including for periods Gallic and Roman.

The time for pilgrimage

The village, located on the Mount in 709 , grew in the shadow of its medieval abbey. North of Saint-Pierre, the double building called La Merveille is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. It is built on three levels on the rocky mountainside.

The economy has been dependent Mount for twelve centuries, many pilgrimages to St. Michael , especially until the French Revolution. People came from all over Northern Europe on a pilgrimage to the Abbey: from the UK , the France of the north and west, etc.. A network of roads Mons was recently reviewed and redeveloped, particularly because of the major tourist attraction that is the site and its bay.

Time Tourism

Ever since the ^nineteenth century , writers and painters romantic came to Mount to its unique charm and picturesque qualities, such as Guy de Maupassant. At the end of the century, several hotels were established at Mt. In the second half of the ^twentieth century , the mutation site into a place of visit in the world has made the small town Norman one of the top tourist destinations in France. There are now three million annual visitors, only a third goes to the abbey. The average time of visit is two to three hours and there are up to 20,000 visitors per day during the summer ^{Monuments and Sights}

61 buildings of the town are protected as historical monuments ^{Religious heritage}

The Archangel Michael slaying the dragon of the Apocalypse at the top of the spire of the abbey.

The refectory.

The arrow Mont Saint-Michel to the courtyard of the abbey.

In order of importance, is of course the abbey itself, which imposes its style and architecture to several tens of kilometers around. The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel dependencies (including the Notre-Dame-sous-Terre) are classified as part of a historical monument by the list of 1862 .

But there are other religious monuments on the rock:

• Chapelle Saint-Aubert, closed as historic monuments by order of February 15, 1908
• the fountain of Saint-Aubert, closed as historic monuments by order of December 29, 1908
• the parish church of Saint-Pierre, then closed as historic monuments by order of March 15, 1909 . Originally, it was the church of the inhabitants of the Mount, the Mons. St. Pierre retains his title of parish and still stands today to the spiritual - as before - the abbey. It is served by a priest appointed by the Bishop of Coutances. The church has retained some vestiges of the ^eleventh century , its pillars, but in general, it belongs to the ^fifteenth and ^sixteenth centuries. The nave has only one aisle, which decenters his choir to the left. With a small bell, it is full of beautiful objects of worship: a window of the fifteenth ^century, a medieval lying beheaded, an altar and reredos bar dated 1660, a baptismal font primitive of the thirteenth ^century, a Virgin Child and Education of the Virgin (St. Anne teaching Mary) of ^XV - XVI ^centuries, and finally, a copy of the statue of St. Michael. The Church of St. Peter is still surrounded by its graveyard. The latter, with its walls, is listed as a historic monument by decree of January 25, 1934
• The yard and buildings depending on the rectory are the subject of a classification as historic monuments by order of September 6, 1928 . The former rectory meanwhile, whose facades and roofs are listed under the Historic Monuments by order of December 8, 1981 .

Heritage Civil

Fortifications

The city now is one of the few French towns to have retained all of its medieval fortifications. The city walls date from the ^thirteenth and ^fifteenth centuries. They are fully closed as historic monuments by the list of 1875, specified by order of May 9, 1904 and is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage . The wall consists of curtains flanked by towers semicircular bastion and tower:

• Tower Claudine
• the North Tower,
• Tower of Liberty,
• Tower Arcade,
• Tower King
• tower loop (bastion).

The battlements and parapets are the fifteenth ^century, and various defenses like:

• the door of the King
• Advancement and his door
• Boulevard and its door,
• the guard of Bourgeois (XVI ^century).

The enclosure of Fanils, which continues the walls of Monteux to Cantilly and Pillette, when the ^sixteenth century, the tower Gabriel, who carries his head a windmill , is the subject of a classification under the historical monuments in the 1875 list, specified by order of May 9, 1904 and is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage

Protected Houses

• home of the Sow File, then closed as historic monuments by order of February 15, 1908
• the building known as "the Little Wood" listed as a historic monument by decree of 29 December 1908, including rocks and boulders of northern Fanils up the fountain of Saint-Symphorien in the east and up the enclosure of Fanils west
• Saint-Symphorien the house, whose lower part is a remnant of the wall of the ^fourteenth century , this part subject to a classification as historic monuments by order of June 14, 1909, the facades and roofs of the house subject to classification as a historic ranking by order of September 6, 1928
• home of the artichoke, which fronts on the first floor and roof (the side of the road leading to Mount) are classified under the Historic Monuments by order of August 9, 1918; the top of the house being a classification as historic monuments by order of May 5, 1936
• the home of Raguenel Tiphaine , whose facades and roofs are listed under the Historic Monuments by decree of ¹ March 1928
• Homes Culver and Eudes, whose facades and roofs are listed under the Historic Monuments by decree of ¹ March 1928
• Hotel de la Licorne, whose facades and roofs are listed under the Historic Monuments by decree of ¹ March 1928
• former Hhtellerie of Escu of Brittany, whose facades and roofs are listed under historic monuments by Order of ¹ March 1928
• home of the Spur, whose facades and roofs are listed under the Historic Monuments by decree of ¹ March 1928
• White Hat's house whose walls and roofs of the stone part is listed under the monuments , by order of March ^1, 1928 and the facades and roofs of part of frame, and the garden are classified by order of 12 August 1936
• the home of St. Aubert, whose facades and roofs are classified under the Historic Monuments by order of September 6, 1928
• White Pigeon's house, whose walls and roofs are classified under the monuments , by order of September 6, 1928
• the house called "Chapel of St. Sebastian," then closed as historic monuments by order of September 6, 1928
• home of Tri-Star, whose facades and roofs are classified under the Historic Monuments by order of September 6, 1928
• Hotel du Dauphin, whose facades and roofs are classified under the monuments , by order of September 6, 1928
• Hotel du Mouton-Blanc, facades and roofs, and outbuildings, is the subject of a classification as historic monuments by order of September 6, 1928
• facades and roofs of two buildings situated adjoining High Street and Road Remparts (called the Vieux Logis)
• home to the Copper Pot, whose facades and roofs are classified under the Historic Monuments by order of December 19, 1928
• the space beneath the stairs to the door of the King is listed as a historic monument by order of February 13, 1929
• By decree of February 13, 1929, the two buildings forming the Hotel de la Mre Poulard , as the building used to store on the ground floor in front of the house of the arcade are classified under Monuments . The adjoining land (plots of land registry AB 84 and AB 111) are classified under the Historic Monuments by decrees of February 13, 1929 and March 13, 1939.
• Bellvue villa-style neo-Gothic , closed as historic monuments by order of September 12, 1931
• the house called "terraces", whose facades and roofs are listed under the Historic Monuments by order of October 12, 1932
• a house built against the wall
• houses overlooking the main street and on the walls

Gardens protected

• The walls and old gardens of Saint-Symphorien, classified under the monuments , by order of September 6, 1928
• The walls and old gardens of Saint-Aubert, classified under the monuments , by order of September 6, 1928
• The walls and gardens of the Dauphin, classified under the Historic Monuments by order of September 6, 1928
• The terraces and gardens "Cross of Jerusalem", classified under the monuments , by order of September 6, 1928
• The terraces of my house red, classified under the Historic Monuments by order of April 4, 1938
• The garden of the Mermaid is classified as a historical monument by order of August 12, 1936
• The gardens of the Muse Saint-Michel, classified under the monuments , by order of August 12, 1936
• The garden and the covered shed
• The gardens of St. Catherine, classified under the Historic Monuments by order of August 28, 1937

Other buildings protected

• two water tanks constructed on the grounds of the White House, classification as historic monuments by order of February 13, 1929
• breezeway

Economy

Le Mont Saint-Michel belongs to three families, which share the common shops, and succeed in the administration of the city. Tourism is the main and indeed almost unique, source of income for the town. There are 300 shops in effect for 3 million tourists, while the municipality has forty residents, traders fifty and a hundred voters.

If the abbey is state property, managed by the Centre for National Monuments , Eric Vannier, current mayor and owner of the group of Mre Poulard (holding half of the restaurants, shops and hotels in the town, and museums ), Jean-Yves Vtel head of Sodetour (two hotels, including the Mercury Barracks) and Patrick Gaul, a former elected official, share the main institutions of the commune.

Le Mont-Saint-Michel is known as " touristic "since August 2009 .

Heraldry

The arms of the municipality of Mont-Saint-Michel and emblazon: Azure sewn to the two bars wavy vert and two silver salmon raised in a bar on the other, that bypassed the head, stitching on the whole . * This is violation of the rule of conflicting colors : These weapons are at fault (Vert on blue). This shield would be a simplification of a more ancient form (right), more complicated, but having the advantage of not being in enquerre! The arms of the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Sandy 10 shells of silver and leader of France) is often wrongly attributed to the municipality.

Famous People

• Robert Thorigny famous abbot of the Mount;
• Guillaume de Saint Pair , a monk of the abbey author of the Roman du Mont-Saint-Michel;
• The Duke of Chartres (the future Louis-Philippe ^I ), came to demolish the "iron cage";
• Mathurin Bruneau , shoemaker, cheat and fake Louis XVII , a prisoner at Mt in 1821-1822;
• Louis Auguste Blanqui , a political prisoner at the Mount;
• Armand Barbs , a political prisoner Mount;
• Monsignor Bravard, who restored the abbey;
• The Mre Poulard , Conservator (see below).

Local cuisine

Mont Saint-Michel is located at the mouth of the Couesnon. On land, facilities already old dikes have until today to win on the sea of land devoted to agriculture and livestock (including sheep, sheep qualified pre-salted). Mutton or lamb salt meadow and is a local specialty, best enjoyed grilled over a wood fire.

A big media event, attended by the de facto designer Christophe with his family Fenouillard surrounding the preparation of the mother Poulard omelette (named after the restaurant in the village and known for that specialty). It is made of eggs and fresh cream, stiffly beaten thoroughly in a copper basin with a long whip in a special rhythm that can hear the loops before being cooked in a pan of copper on a wood fire.

Cultural references to Mont-Saint-Michel

In literature

• In 1832, the novel The fairy with crumbs of writer Charles Nodier evokes the shifting sands of the bay of Mont Saint-Michel.
• In 1850, the fantasy novel by Paul Feval , The fairy strikes, which the action takes place in 1450, recalls the legends of Mont-Saint-Michel and Mount Tombelaine.
• In 1887, in The Horla , fantastic story of Guy de Maupassant , the main character ends his journey therapeutic Mont Saint-Michel.
• In 1967, in his a href = "Cycle_des_princes_d 27Ambre%" class = "mw-redirect" title = "Cycle of the Princes of Amber"> Cycle Princes of Amber, Roger Zelazny was inspired amenities and features of Mont-Saint-Michel to create the city of Amber.
• In 1984, the Ministry of Culture published the book division of the creator Francis Rouillay, to relive the thousand years of history and architecture of Mont Saint-Michel, with a preface by Franoise Chandernagore.
• In 2004, the novel The Promise of the Angel, by Frederic Lenoir and Violette Cabesos, is an archaeological detective story whose action is primarily at Mont-Saint-Michel.
• In 2005, the thriller The Blood of time of Maxime Chattam occurs at Mont Saint-Michel in 2005 and Egypt in the 1920s.

In comics

• In 1999 and 2000, Bruno Bertin to publish editions P'tit Louis two comics Youth Adventures of Vicky Vick and having part of Mont-Saint-Michel, under the common title The Archangels of Mont-Saint-Michel: The Testament ( Volume 1) and The Curse (Volume 2).
• In 2008, the comic The Devil & the Archangel, text and drawings of William Neel, Julien Gondouin color, takes an old medieval legend about the creation of Mont-Saint-Michel, and is decorated with an educational booklet for better understand the Devil and the Archangel, the history of the Mount, the city.

In music

• In 1996, the English composer Mike Oldfield releases album Voyager , one of whose titles is dedicated to the Mont-Saint-Michel.
• In 1998, the French composer Patrick Broguire publish it as Mont St. Michel a progressive rock concept album dedicated to the legends of Mont-Saint-Michel.
• In 1999, the musician Breton harpist Kirjuhel releases album Echo of Mont-Saint-Michel.
• In 2001, the English musician Aphex Twin , a native of Cornwall, published album of electronic music Drukqs , whose title Mt Saint Michel + St Michaels Mount is inspired both by the Mont-Saint-Michel and St Michaels' Mount , located in Cornwall.

In film

• Pauline at the Beach with Eric Rohmer

In video games

• Le Mont Saint-Michel is represented at the time of the Renaissance in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood , video game published by Ubisoft. The city is indeed proposed as a playground ("map") for multiplayer games in the first downloadable content released in December 2010 .

References

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