Mont Saint-Michel, France
It is super easy to get to Rennes from Paris via train. There is a high-speed
train, TGV that runs several times
daily from Paris’ Gare Montparnasse. The train takes about 2.05 hours.
To travel further to Mont Saint-Michel,
you need to buy a ticket at a bus terminal office of Rennes.
  
(L) TVG train is going to leave from Gare Montparnasse.
(M) A compartment seat is still used in TGV. A conductor is checking a
passenger's ticket.
(R) A snack car
 
(L) TVG train just arrived in Gare de Rennes.
(R) A monk at Gare de Rennes
  
(L) Gare de Rennes
(M) A bus terminal of Rennes
(R) A ticket office, at which we buy a ticket to Mont Saint-Michel.
Mont Saint-Michel is a rocky tidal island and a commune in Normandy, France.
It is located approximately one km
off the country's north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River. The
tides can vary greatly, at roughly 14 meters
between high and low water marks. It is nicknamed "St. Michael in
peril of the sea" by medieval pilgrims making
their way across the flats. The mount can still pose dangers for visitors
who avoid the causeway and attempt the
hazardous walk across the sands from the neighboring coast.
Source:Wikipedia
 
(L) Mont Saint-Michel and the causeway
(R) A group of sheep is grazing around the highway to direct to the Mont
Saint-Michel.
The causeway connects the mainland and Mont Saint-Michel. This photo was
taken in May 2011.
Mont Saint-Michel was previously connected to the mainland via a thin natural
land bridge, which before
modernization was covered at high tide and revealed at low tide.
 
(L) Mont Saint-Michel was the island in 1900's.
(R) The 762 m pedestrian bridge and a road for a shuttle bus were completed
in 2014.(Picture source: Mail on Line, 12.12.2014 )
Mont Saint-Miche when the sea water rose in 2022
Picture source: NHK
In 2006, the French prime minister and regional authorities announced €164 million
project to build a hydraulic
dam using the waters of the river Couesnon and of tides to help remove
the accumulated silt deposited by the
rising tides, and to make 'Mont-Saint-Michel' an island again. The project
included the destruction of the causeway
that had been built on top of the small land bridge and enlarged to join
the island to the continent, and was used
as a parking lot for visitors. It will be replaced by an elevated light
bridge, under which the waters will flow more
freely, and that will improve the efficiency of the now operational dam, and the construction of another parking
lot on the mainland. Visitors will use small shuttles to cross the future
bridge which will still be open to pedestrians
and bicycles.
Reference: Wikipedia
 
(L) Tourists from everywhere come to see the world heritage, Mont Saint-Michel.
(R) Visitors are walking with their feet in shallow sea water of Saint-Malo
Bay.
  
(L) Abbey was built upon the bay's lonesome rock.
(M) Information board written in French, English and Jaoanese
(R) Tourists are entering an exciting alley to the top of Mont Saint-Michel.
    
    
A various scene observed in the crowded slope approach to the Mont Saint-Michel.
A small island and local community, Mont Saint Michel has a number of shopping
opportunities.
 
(L) Young girls are sitting-in the stairway.
(R) An old house standing on the cliff in the Mont Saint-Michel
 
Mont Saint-Michel became famous for the omelette made by a proprietress.
Many well-known politicians
and actor, or actress visited here and tasted a special, but high-priced
omelette.
A special delicious, but expensive omelette
 
(L) The cloister (R) The spire of Mont Saint-Michel is visible from the
courtyard outside abbey.
    
A place of worship
  
(L) The wall and stairway to and from the chapel
(R) Gargoyles in the Mont Saint-Michel
In Mount Saint-Michel, Mercure Mont Saint Hotel has 100 guest rooms. Le
Relais
Saint-Michel Hotel has 39. Both hotels are non-smoking and smoke-free.
 
(L) Mercure Mont Saint Hotel and a nearby restaurant
(R) Balcony of the Le Relais Saint-Michel Hotel
 H
Smoking Restriction at Hotels in the World: Actual Survey
The ratio of a smoking guest room to the total hotel rooms was calculated,
based on-the-spot investigation.
The Gare de Rennes, opened in 1857, is now stood at two hour and five-minute
ride by TGV to Paris. This will
be reduced to one hour and 30 minutes from 2014, after extension of High-speed
Rail Line.
  
(L) Gare Montparnasse - Gare de Rennes TGV train
(R) Departure bulletin board of the Gare de Rennes
 
Gare de Rennes
 
A street in the city of Rennes, which is the sister and friendship city
with Sendai, Japan.
モン・サン・ミシェルはフランス西海岸、サン・マロ湾上に浮かぶ小島に築かれた修道院である。カトリックの巡礼地の
ひとつであり「西洋の驚異」と称され、1979年「モンサンミシェルとその湾」としてユネスコの世界遺産に登録された。
この島はもともとモン・トンブ（墓の山）と呼ばれ先住民のケルト人が信仰する聖地であった。大天使ミカエルのお告げ
を受けここに礼拝堂を作ったのがことの始まりである。中世以来、カトリックの聖地として巡礼者を集めてきているが、
今はパリからの日帰り圏の観光地として多くの観光客が訪れている。
礼拝堂まで坂道と階段を登っていくが、狭い道の両側にはお土産物店やレストランがひしめきあっている。フランス国内
でも、これほどの人がひしめき合っているところはない。入口左側に有名なオムレツ料理を提供するレストランがあるが、
玉子とザラメをふんだんに使用した一種のケーキである。一人分、4500円ほどの品である。
サン・マロ湾はヨーロッパでも潮の干満の差が最も激しい所として知られる。潮の満ち引きの差は15メートル以上ある。
このため、湾の南東部に位置する修道院が築かれた岩でできた小島はかつては満ち潮の時には海に浮かび、引き潮の時
には自然に現れる陸橋で陸と繋がっていた。 最も大きい潮が押し寄せるのは満月と新月の28-36時間後といわれており、
引き潮により沖合い18kmまで引いた潮が、猛烈な速度で押し寄せる。このためかつては多くの巡礼者が潮に飲まれて
命を落としたといい、 「モン・サン=ミシェルに行くなら、遺書を置いて行け」という言い伝えがあった。
1877年に対岸との間に地続きの道路が作られ、潮の干満に関係なく島へと渡れるようになった。しかし、これによって
潮流をせき止めることとなり、2mもの砂が堆積してしまった。 急速な陸地化が島の周囲で進行している。現在、
国家事業として、かつての「島」に戻すプロジェクトが立ち上げられている。
(参考：ウィキペディア）
France, Germany and Switzerland
 Paris 2011 Mont Saint-Michel Marseille Nice Monaco Lyon Strasbourg Freiburg
Basel Berlin Railway Travel in Europe 2011 Paris Rail Terminals
Smoking restrictions in France, Germany and Switzerland
 モン・サン・ミシェル
 2011年6月執筆 2011年5月写真撮影 医学博士 宮本順伯
★This Web site is link-free.
This information was provided by the Smokefree Hotel and Travel.
The photographs were taken in May, and the article was written in June
2011,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
A photograph the Mont Saint-Miche when the sea water rose was added in September 2022.
Copyright(C) 2011 Junhaku Miyamoto, All rights reserved.
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