Mont Saint-Michel

This has been a bucket list location for me for years.  When Tangled first came out, I remember thinking how beautiful her kingdom was.  Then I learned that it was based on this beautiful island monastery in France.  Mont Saint-Michel is a beautiful island village topped with a huge monastery.  It's surrounded by beach/sand & when the tide is high, it sometimes gets completely surrounded by water.  It's spectacular.

When we arrived, we couldn't find a parking lot anywhere, so we parked along the street & started to walk towards the island through a beautiful green field.  (No cars are allowed there because

#1: They wouldn't fit in the narrow alleys of the island streets

#2: They'd get stuck on the island if there was high tide.

There were some craters along the way (probably from WWII since this was so close to the Normandy beaches), that the kids loved playing in.  They made some beautiful pictures.

We are definitely tourists. . . I bought this Mont Saint-Michel chocolate croissant at the bakery on our way to the island.

As we were walking across this field, we actually realized we were in a sheep pasture.  There were sheep everywhere. . . MEAN sheep.  Pretty soon we were running trying to avoid getting head butted.  Apparently we were NOT on the right path to get to the island & had wandering into a sheep pasture.

After about a 30 minute walk, we finally found our way to the bridge to the island city.

The city itself was adorable.  It definitely gave me Harry Potter vibes.  It was almost like we were in Diagon Alley.  The streets were narrow, there was cobblestone everywhere, & the shops were adorable.

The first thing we did was walk up to the top of the island to visit the monastery.  The view from the top of the island was gorgeous.

Inside the main worship area, the monks & nuns were singing & it was so beautiful to hear their voices ring throughout that cathedral.

After visiting the monastery, we explored the rest of the island village.  We found so many cute little passageways, shops, & things to take pictures with.

At sunset, we climbed the rocks outside of the city gates & watched the sun set over the ocean.  It was such a beautiful time of day to be there.

The boys also loved playing in the mud around the island.  The sand all the way around Is actually quicksand so you have to be VERY careful if you walk on it.  We never walked on it, but we loved throwing big rocks in it to watch them disappear.

And then it was time to go.  We were sad to say goodbye, but it was a wonderful day.  I'm SO glad we went the extra hour on our trip to see Mont Saint-Michel.  It was worth it.