Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay

Two days around the Wonder of the West and the bay that gives it meaning. The trip combines the Gothic abbey rising from its rock, a guided barefoot crossing of the bay through quicksand and salt meadows, then Granville, the Monaco of the North with its corsair upper town and Dior museum, Cancale and its oyster beds facing the bay, and finally Avranches, where the Mont's manuscripts are kept. This is a place ruled by the tide: the great tides of March and September remake the landscape within hours. Never set out across the sands alone, a guide is mandatory. Visit the Mont early in the morning or late in the day, once the three million annual visitors have thinned out.