It looks like a movie set but this island actually
exists! You'll find it in Normandy, France. Mont-Saint-Michel as it's called – is a social
media sensation. But does it live up to the hype? And are you aware of its many secrets? Yeah, it's like wow! How did they build this? Ah, amazing. It's so cool. From the autoroute you can see it,
from 20 kilometres away you can see Le Mont-Saint-Michel. Mont-Saint-Michel was one of the most difficult
construction projects of the Middle Ages. And when visiting today, it can get
very dangerous. But more on that later. Those who DO arrive unscathed
can discover many secrets. Hello, I'm Anne, I'm a guide
in the Abbye of Mont-Saint-Michel for nine years and with those keys
I'm going to show you secret places. You can cross the 2-kilometer long bridge
to the island, at low tide, by foot, or shuttle bus. Around 3.5 million visitors come here
every year so it can get pretty crowded! My tip is to come in January
or December, so it gets very very quiet. You feel like almost alone in the village. And you get also very beautiful lights. The landscape is beautiful here
and important tides as well, which is quite spectacular. This is the west terrace, where you'll find
the abbey church entrance. It was built on this hill from the
11th century onwards. Many buildings are built
or stacked – on top of each other. How did they achieve this, back in the day? It's hard to believe how they built
such buildings on the Mount here. Mont-Saint-Michal is like a rocky
cone, something like a pyramid. We are almost at the summit
at 80 metres above the sea level. Try to imagine here a system of flat boats
according to the tides. Those medieval builders brought all the construction materials on
those flat boats – barges actually – from different places in Normandie,
even from England. There s a huge height difference
between low and high tide in the bay – sometimes by as much as 14 meters!
At low tide, you can walk to the island across the tidal flats, but it's best to go
with a guided group – otherwise it can get dangerous! Don't venture by yourself into the bay
because in the past even quite recently people can still get stuck in the bay
because of those quick sands. And if you have still a big proportion
of water inside it gets like a soak in effect. If the tide is coming in, if you are alone,
if you can't get out of those potential quick sands, that could be dangerous. Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey combines
Romanesque and Gothic architecture. There are plenty of secrets waiting
to be discovered here. But first, Anne leads us to this door. And now a little passage that
not everybody gets to see actually. We're going to go higher into the Abbey. So we are now on the terrace
of the choir of the abbey church. These flying buttresses are typical of Gothic
architecture, and are carrying weight on the outside. One of them is actually a passageway. This is here built on a flying
buttress, the lace staircase. It's like lace design into the granite. And this was built back in the Middle Ages here. So you have here actually
almost the top of the mount. The only access to the bell tower,
just here on the left. And finally the Archangel St Michael
on the very top used also as a lightning rod. Protecting against potential
storms, lightning here. Because that's what caused
big damages in the past. A thousand years ago, Benedictine monks
lived here for many centuries. Today, the island is mainly a tourist attraction. But in the Middles Ages, scores of pilgrims
flocked to the island. But guess what: a few monks and
nuns actually still live here today! Actually 5 monks and 7 nuns, all together 12.
And they are having services 3 times a day. It's like the convention with the French
government to do services into that monument. And in exchange they have a
place for them. Private obviously. And lastly, time to reveal Mont-Saint-Michel's
darkest secret: 2 isolation cells to lock up particularly serious offenders. From the
French Revolution until the year 1863, the abbey was used as a prison! You can see here inscriptions from probably prisoners that stayed here for long
long hours or long days of detention. Some of the prisoners wrote their years
of sufferments in different places. Imagine how awful it was to stay here. Much of what has happened on the island over
the different centuries is yet to be researched and some things will remain forever unknown. And so, Le Mont-Saint-Michel remains
a deeply mysterious place!
