Fun things to do in Mont Saint Michel

When you arrive at the Mont you will enter directly up from the car/bus park and proceed through the Forward Gate, the Boulevard Gate and finally the King's Gate (Porte du Roy) into the "main" street of the vllage.

On your left before you enter the King's Gate, you will find an amenities block. I for one, was glad that I took advantage of the washroom facilities before going into the village because I didn't see many more opportunities once inside, only in some of the restaurants. That's not say there aren't any inside. It's just that I didn't see ny.

It is difficult to describe quite how quickly the tide advances over the sand flats of Mont St Michel bay: suffice to say that it has engulfed and drowned literally thousands of people in its time.

Because of its unique location in a 'pocket' of the English Channel - which the French endearingly call, 'La Manche' (the sleeve) - Mont St Michel experiences an astonishing tidal range of up to 14m, which is second only to the Bay of Fundy in Canada (with a bewildering range of 16m). At spring tide, the low tide can retreat as far as 18km from the shoreline and even at other times of the year, the sea retreats beyond visibility, exposing a vast expanse of sand.

I love the literary allusion of waves breaking, "like galloping white horses", and even on a calm day in summer, you could appreciate that this was not just poetic fancy. On a stormy winter day, this must be less of a gallop, and more of a full blooded stampede!

I have to confess to being underwhelmed by the wildlife in Bretange and the little of Normandy that we explored, so it was a pleasure to watch breeding colonies of sea birds at Mont St Michel.

Looking down from the entrance to the monastery, we were able to observe these fledgling herring gulls in the gutters of the buldings on the lower part of the Mont at the 'cute and cuddly' stage: a far cry from the pushy, strident adults that they will soon become!

The rocky island on which Mont St Michel has developed is only 3 square kilometres, and it's astonishing how much has been crammed onto this tiny outcrop over the centuries.

The monastery occupies pride of place on top of the Mont, which is surrounded by a tangle of buildings on the lower slopes, which would have accommodated those who had not taken religious orders but provided support services to the community, as well as visitors. These have now been converted into shops, restaurants and hotels along La Grande Rue, as well as limited accommodation for staff and administrative offices.

There's a very interesting series of models in the monastery to show how the Mont has developed. From this, it's clear that there wasn't a great deal of formal planning involved, with new buildings and extensions to existing structure being shoehorned into any available space. The overall effect is charmingly higglety pigglety, like an illustration from a fairy tale, yet pleasingly uniform because the same granite and slate construction materials and similar architectural styles have been used throughout.

The monastery at Mont St Michel is an astounding place and I found that I was suffering from sensory overload by the time that I finally emerged.

After the stark grey elegance of the architecture and slightly unworldly filtered light of the monastery's interior, it was somewhat of a relief to step outside into the sunlit greenness of the rampart gardens. The views from here out over the bay are stunning and it's a terrific place to gather your thoughts and plot what you plan to do with the rest of your day.

I'm partial to a good set of cloisters, and the ones at Mont St Michel didn't disappoint!

Unlike most cloisters, which are usually at the heart of the monastery, the spatial challenges of the Mont dictated that the cloisters be tacked onto the seaward side of the monastery complex. They are also unusual in that they feature a double row of arches, which are slightly offset from one another.

Unlike the exposed ramparts, this peaceful space must have provided the monks with a welcome place to retreat that would have offered respite from the bitter winds that howl in over the bay during bad weather.

Mont St Michel is located at the mouth of the River Couesnon, in a setting which experiences one of the most extreme tidal ranges in the world - both of which have combined to create a very distinct estuarine ecosystem.

Due to the extreme tides in the bay, the river environment is strongly influenced by the sea, and until recently, the spring tide extended up to 20km inland. However, the diversion of rivers, the construction of a causeway to Mont St Michel and the establishment of a tidal barrage have all contributed towards the significant modification of the coastal environment that would have prevailed a millenium ago. And, to add another element of change to this ecosystem, the project to replace the existing causeway with a bridge - thus restoring more natural flow conditions around the island - is due for completion by 2015.

But coastal environments are all about adaptation, and despite the challenges posed by human development, the ecosystem around Mont St Michel is still one of the most interesting and accessible that you'll encounter along this coastline. This is a fortunate juxtaposing of brackish estuarine system, extensive tidal sandflats, coastal salt marsh and rocky shoreline, so if you're looking to escape the crowds, then consider a strategic retreat to experience the way the Mont would have been before people .

Depite the huge number of visitors, the area surrounding Mont St Michel is still a refuge for wildlife, particularly wading birds, so even if you're not a twitcher, you should spot at least half a dozen species of gull, heron and other wading bird if you keep an eye open, and many more if you're more interested.

Just one warning: for fear of sounding like a broken record, be particularly careful of the incoming tide, as it would be easy to get marooned, particularly if you're exploring the sand flats or salt marsh.

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Squeezed and pushed, no matter the day nor the hour, the crowd slowly passes along the town, one hundred per cent aimed to touristic commerce.

Everything is, of course, well integrated in the whole, and prepares the visitor to meet the cherry on the top of the cake ( I mean - the mount). Business is mainly made in the way back.