Mont Saint Machel of Couesnon River near Avranches France

Mont Saint Michel is located approximately one kilometer off the country's north-western coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches in France. A Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St. Michael and the village that grew up in the shadow of its greats walls. Around its base are medieval walls and towers, above which rise the clustered building of the village and crowding the mount, the ancient abbey of La Merveill (“The Wonder”).

The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times, and since the 8^th century century AD been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. The Mont Saint Michel and its bay are part of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Mont Saint-Michel was previously connected to the mainland to the mainland via a tidal causeway and this connection has been altered over the centuries. The coastal flats have been polderised to create pasture, thus distance between the shore and the south coast of Mont-Saint Michel has decreased.

Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in 8^th century, the island was called “ monte tombe”. According to the legend, the Archangel Micheal appeared to St. Aubert, bishp of Avranches, in 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel's instruction, until Micheal burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger.

In French Revolution, Mont Saint Michel was used in the 6^th and 7^th centuries as an Armorican stronghold of Gallo-Roman culture and power, until it was ransacked by the Franks, this ending the trans-channel culture that had stood since the departure of the Roman in AD 460.

Today, visitors arrive by choice, seeking to explore the 11th-century abbey, dine in fine restaurants and take in the impressive evening illuminations. Only a narrow causeway built in 1880 links the island to the mainland, although a bridge is due to be completed in 2012.