Mont Saint Michel
 

We are on a Med. cruise, and one of the shore excursions is a trip to Mont Saint Michel. I have always wanted to see this place, but the trip sounds strenuous. I can walk- but have to stop to catch my breath as I am not in good physical condition. Do you think I could make it up to the top (It says 365 steps in the brochure.) by stopping frequently to rest, or am I just deluding myself?

It is quite a climb. I think you are probably deluding yourself to think you can make it. Not to be an alarmist, but this is the sort of thing that causes many heart attacks on vacations. If you can't do such climbs at home, you will be even less likely to on vacation, especially combined with gorging on the food during a cruise.

Being owned by the French government, it would be a shock if there weren't some provisions for physically challenged folk to reach the basilica on the island's summit. Ask someone if there is help - but once you get in the abbey/basilica i remember having to go up and down more steps.

wondering if anyone knows if MSM has facilities for infirm?

We sure didn't see any, and I don't know what might be put in place, given the island's structure. I just have a bad knee, and with that I wouldn't even have tried making the climb. As for stopping frequently to rest, the crowds are usually so dense that it would be very difficult to do so.

Perhaps the French government needs to consider turning the supplies-lift contraption into an outside elevator!

In May I climbed it, although taking stops now and then. On the other hand, I think it's real beauty is seeing it from afar (and gradually getting closer, etc.), and I don't know that I would necessarily recommend going there. I've heard that it is lovely at night when all the daytrippers leave, and that is probably so.

I love Mt. Saint Michel, but it gets awfully crowded in the daytime during tourist season, and the stairs become claustrophobic as well as steep. The best way to see it is to stay overnight, after the tour buses have taken away all the crowds. Then you feel like you can take the steps unhurried.

I think it is a little too close to scaremongering to suggest that the crowds will "sweep" you along, and you cannot rest.

I think you can rest every ten steps, all the way up, if you wish... but this is a question you can answer at home. You must have a flight of stairs you can use somewhere. Climb 36 times - - ideally in less than 90 minutes - - you can find out if you do it or not.

Best wishes,

Rex

I wasn't scaremongering, Rex, just reporting my own experience on our first visit to Mont St-Michel. Standing to rest is difficult with the crush of visitors, and benches are few and far between.

Hi txchic,

Being on a cruise and this will be a shore excursion, I guess you will be with a group. If that is case I think you might become unpopular with your shipmates if you cannot keep up with the rest. The time of your visit will probably when the island is most crowded, but it is too nice a site not to go.

You should go and see if you can make it to the top, or even part way up.
If not, there is still a lot you can do on the island while rest of the tour is climbing up to the Basilica and back down.

The view of Mont St. Michael as you are approaching it is most beautiful. I think you should go, then play it by "Ear".

Enjoy your cruise, Jimjim

Perhaps praying to Saint Michael as medieval pilgrims did may help you get there.

Better to try and turn back then never to try at all. At least if you are there and turn back then you will be happy within your own heart. I made it! And I was behind an 87 year old man who told me just to keep my eyes on his butte....if he could do it I could do it. We both made it.....although I did the last 10 stairs using my hands as well!!!!! Give it a try!!!!

I read in some guide book that only 10% of the visitors to the Mont make it to the top.

Keith

The 87-year-old man must have had a VERY large backside!

Mont St. Michel is well worth the visit but before you climb the steps, you are walking along a corkscrew uphill road - no vehicles - that is lined with tacky souvenir shops. For this portion maybe you could use a wheelchair and then when reaching the Abbey itself, climb as high as you are comfortable. The crowds seemed much more dense down in the shops than when in the abbey itself. It is not imperative to reach the top to capture the feeling here - and the views. I loved this place and found it to have a mystical quality. It is easy to understand why it was a place of worship. Don't bother with any of the "museums" on the way up.

Underhill : :):):) Actually the man was very skinny, scrawny and tough and I was a good 60 lbs heavier than I am now. But we made it!!!

I did stop off and see the house/museum of Logis Tiphaine and the guide let me out the back door/gate which was rather hidden. This saved me a ton of steps as the house is built on the hill w/ the back door higher than the front door. I got that tip from some guide book or other.

Not very far in is a 'creperie?' on the left. About half way up is another on the right. About two thirds of the way up is a park with benches on the left.
On our way down, we passed a group of grey frocked nuns oohing at the postcards and ticky tacky for sale as if they had never seen anything like it before.
It's a gotta go.

When we visited, my daughter had a hip injury that made traversing stairs excrutiating. Ramps weren't great but were much better. The guides told us not to worry--we would be ascending early a.m. via some special road. And that's exactly what we did--it was a road, not stairs.

Our descent was via the regular way, and my husband just carried her piggyback with frequent rests as described above.

So please do inquire if you can gain access to that ramp road with a wheelchair.

<<Our descent was via the regular way, and my husband just carried her piggyback with frequent rests...>>

Wow. All I can say is wow.

Well, it's embarrassing to ask, because it means admitting I haven't researched. But, what do you see when you climb? We didn't climb to the top of Les Baux because of my husband's knee. Is the climb for the scenery and the view, or is it like a little perched village like St. Paul de Vence or Vezelay?