53306NOR
Honfluer, Mont St Michel, St Malo
Routes
Opening days/times, entrance fees, etc. listed on Yellow Pages.
Mont St Michel inside visit of the Abbey & lunch stop
Access to Mont St Michel HAS CHANGED quite radically since 2013 for it to remain an island. Recommend you arrive a minimum of 60 mins prior to timed entrance to Abbey. The bus will drop you off in a designated bus park 2,5km from the island and then you take a shuttle bus (ca. 10 mins journey time). There can often be quite a queue for this. Shuttles come every 5 minutes so it is never too long. From the drop off, you have a 5-10 min walk to get into the Mount proper. Count at least 30 mins to get to the Abbey from the time enter the Mount defence walls and therefore 30 mins to get back. V. busy at Easter and June/July. TM pays for parking after visit at machines opposite toilets at bus parking Vistor Centre. Take photo/mental note of parking bay so you can locate on return.
Mont St Michel Visitors Centre Bus Parking:
It is best to do the visit first, then give free time for lunch. However, if your group is very keen to eat first, allow 1 hour for lunch and explain to the group how to meet you at the ticket checkpoint for the Abbey (i.e. straight up the street and all the steps until you can go no further than the last terrace.) The group waits here. When you have gone up under the archway to get the tickets, come back and bring them up past the giant fireplace to show tickets and start visit inside.
If not lunching first, lead the group inside the walls, stop by the Tourist Office/public toilets and arrange a rendezvous for after the visit/lunch at this point or at the return bus stop. Inside walls easier – the only exit and easier to locate any missing pax.
There is an ATM at the post office just inside the main entrance. Students can also send a postcard from here stamped Mont St Michel.
There is only one street (ahead of you) and it’s usually very crowded. If rushed, it is better to go up onto the ramparts (take the first stairway to the right just after the portcullis near to the point you enter/exit the mount and then left at the top of the stairs through a narrow doorway) and follow the ramparts up the hill. This affords lovely views over the tidal surroundings and the group can visit shops in their own time on the way back down.
Bring your group or send them as far as is possible to climb stairs before you can go no further without tickets. Ask them to wait there while you get their tickets. Climb the staircase. You turn to your right and go to the office
Buy tickets, pick up green English walking tour leaflets (do not distribute) and come back to the group waiting for you at the terrace then show them back up the staircase to the person at the metal gate ticket checkpoint. You need to count your group through. Distribute leaflets here. Lead the group straight ahead up a final flight of stairs. At the top you have the Abbey and toilets on your right and views of the bay on your left. Lead the group out onto the terrace.
Once out on the terrace ask them to repeat rendezvous place and time. They then enter the Abbey and follow all arrows for direction through the Mont St. Michel, spiralling down though the construction until they arrive with all the other visitors at the gift shop. Route is well marked. Toilets at the back of the gift shop.
They will pass all the shops/ lunch places on their way back down the hill.
Mont St Michel Shuttle Bus Drop-Off/Pick-Up:
Biscuiterie: if your driver knows of a good biscuiterie (selling butter biscuits) you can do a stop. There are several in the area. The best one for the group is the Biscuiterie de l’ Abbaye. There are free biscuit samples (palets, galettes etc) and no obligation to buy (the biscuits are cheaper than those being sold on the mount). Regional produce is also on sale (cider, pommeau, poireau, butter sweets etc.). There is also a free toilet.
Best to stop after your visit to the Mount (allow about 30 minutes for sampling/toilet/purchases).
Audioguides:
These cost 3€ each and stops 90 minutes before the closure of the monument, that is to say 30 minutes before the closure of the ticket office. Pax return these at exit into gift shop.
4:30pm when the abbey closes at 6:00pm
5:30pm when the abbey closes at 7:00 pm
Most groups, particularly students, fine with leaflets.
Routes from Mont St Michel to Dinard/St Malo
If you visit Mont St Michel over lunchtime/early afternoon and are spending the night in Dinard, you may want to include one of the following; a brief stop in St Malo (add 1 ½ to your timings) (see St Malo Excursion for details); on a nice day it is well worth going to the Pointe du Grouin and/or Cancale, where you can try oysters!
NB Make sure you discuss these options with the group as they may prefer to go straight to Dinard and relax (most groups complain that they never spend enough time here)
