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The dike that connects the Mont to the continent since 1877 leads to the Porte du Roi condemned. But you can enter by a wooden gangway, at the "Porte Avancée", the only opened in the ramparts.
Now you must know that every year, not counting the tourists, 850,000 pilgrims still visit the Mont Saint Michel, piling on to an island only two-thirds of a mile, in circumference, like angels crowding on to a pinhead. They arrive, carrying flags, sporting cockleshells and lead badges depicting the Archangel, singing hymns as they climb up to the abbey along "La Grande Rue", the principal artery. Any time of the year you can be sure of crowd jams, blocking the passage for their fellow visitors. I give you a good trick when faced to congestion: buy an enormous ice cream and carry it before you like a crucifix warding off evil. It works, I assure you!!
Unless you are in a very urgent need of a fluorescent plastic sword or some Mont Saint Michel dominoes, manufactured in Hong Kong or Macao, you can avoid La Grande Rue and its thrusting souvenir shops by taking the flight of steps opposite the Post office. That way you mount to the town's 13th to 15th century ramparts, which, turning left, lead via a series of defensive towers to the abbey entrance. Or you can visit (before taking the steps), the Eglise Paroissiale de Saint Pierre, where Saint Aubert, the founding priest is buried in the cemetery.
Anyway, on the way up you can admire the silvery sands of Mont Saint Michel bay. In the 12th century there was a priory at the place where the Tour du Nord is now. The English erected a castle on the island during the 100 years war.
 Before undertaking a detailed visit of 27 of the halls of the current Abbey, a reminder is required: these large rooms with apparent stones that we admire today are a far cry from the way of life of the monks of the time, because furniture, pavement, stained-glass windows, paintings and wall-covering adorned richly these places. Except for some elements of frescoes (see the crypt of Notre - Dame -des -Trentes -Cierges), there is nothing left.
Today, the Abbey of the Mont-Saint-Michel comprises three building levels that encircle tightly the summit of the Mount; this visit follows these levels. The presentation of these halls seeks to find the original utilization of the place, before The Mauristes in the 17th century and the penitentiary administration at the end of the 18th century altered deeply the architecture and the organization of the Abbey.
The start of the real visit will be for the next article but here are already the visiting schedules and possibilities.
Open from 2nd of May up to 30 September open 9.30-17.30, 1st October to April 30 open 9.30-16.30.
Three ways of visit:
--visit alone, count 40 FF, for those who are interested, with a guide in a limited circuit.
--a visit "conference", count 25 FF plus the entrance fee. A passionate and very scholar guide will lead you in a profound discovery tour in all the hidden places of this incredible abbey. Reservation is advisable at 0233898000
--an audio-guide. Count 20 FF plus the entrance fee.
Bibliography
Le Mont-Saint-Michel pierre à pierre by Marc Deceneux (Éditions Ouest France 1996), Millénaire monastique du Mont-Saint-Michel, by Michel Nortier( ed. Lethellieux Paris 1993),Le Mont-Saint-Michel,Histoire (Éditions du patrimoine), L'abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel (Les grands sites et monuments du monde at Gallimard, Le Mont-Saint-Michel, monastère et citadelle by Lucien Bély (Éditions Ouest France 1996)
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