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.
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.
Mont Saint-Michel was the island in 1900's.
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.
 
(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
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）
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.
France, Germany and Switzerland
 Paris 2011 Mont Saint-Michel Marseille Nice Monaco Lyon Strasbourg Freiburg Basel Berlin
Railway Travel in Europe 2011
Smoking restrictions in France, Germany and Switzerland
2011年6月執筆 2011年5月写真撮影
禁煙席ネット主宰 医学博士 宮本順伯
★記事、写真の無断転載禁止
著作権は宮本順伯に帰属
★「禁煙席ネット」へのリンクは自由
The photographs were taken in May, and the article was written in June
2011,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
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