Deserts of France

This is the north-eastern view of the famous tidal island of Mont Saint Michele in northern France. The island is surrounded by the sea only during particularly high tides while for the rest of the time it stands among the great, flat plain of sand and mud left by the retreating sea. This plain is the closest thing to a desert that can be found in the north-western Europe and thus, in the early medieval period, the remote island attracted monks who established a Benedictine abbey at its top inspired by the monastic lives of the monks in the deserts in the Holy Land. The abbey was dedicated to Archangel Michel and soon became one of the most important pilgrimage places in the region. Its wealth and fame also encouraged medieval architects who made it one of the architectural marvels of the western world.  The top of the rock of Mont Saint Michele provided barely enough space for the construction of a church without additional room for the monastery. In response, the medieval builders constructed a monumental multiple storey building which reached the height of the church despite being built on a much lower ground. The building included 3 levels with high, representative gothic chambers located right above each other and garden with cloisters and refectory located at its top, right on the roof of the higher gothic hall with large gothic windows. Below the abbey there soon developed a village which was fortified in the 15^th C.

Connected with these fortifications is one of the most interesting stories of the site – of a hero who deserted his cause. In the early 15^th C. during the 100 years war almost entire northern France was conquered by the English and their allies from Burgundy. Large castles and cities like nearby Rouen (the second largest city in France after Paris) surrounded to the English monarch, many without a fight. The abbot of Mont Saint Michele at the time was certain Robert Jollivet who possessed great wealth and spent most of his time in Paris rather than in his abbey. When the danger of the attack increased however, he was determined that the monastery should not fall to the enemy and returned to the island to construct mighty fortifications against the English. His works inspired the supporters of the French cause from all over the region and soon knights and soldier began to gather to fight for it. When the English army arrived however, the abbot lost his courage and fled the island believing that there is no hope of defending it and joined the English cause. His estimate however, proved wrong and the abbey repelled the English attacks and became a symbol of the French resistance as one of the few fortifications that were never taken by the English. The walls and towers built by Robert Jollivet survive to this day and stand as an icon of national identity. The determination of the abbot to defend his monastery made him a hero – a hero who fled in the crucial moment of the struggle (I know that this last sentence is a bit of an oxymoron but still – I hope you like the story  )