INSIDE MONT SAINT MICHEL Medieval Village Normandy France

Mont Saint-Michel, this magical island topped with a medieval skyscraper, has been a holy place since the year 708. It would have been a drawbridge at one point. Climb its winding cobbled streets, past age-old gauntlets and eateries, all while surrounded by the vast sea inside this world heritage site that stood on these shores for well over a thousand years. Pilgrims first came to the mound to be hermits, attracted by the tides that rush in so fast. They could cross quickly and be alone here. And in the year 966, its first church opened. After dark, its enchanting streets take on a whole new atmosphere. Wherever you are on the mound, you can look up at its shining beacon above. Air raid siren going off at Mont Saint-Michel. Is that normal? Didn't actually connect this with a bridge, like an actual bridge, across the water until the late 1800s. So before that, you could only get to it obviously if the tide was out. Crazy. So a lot of all this mud and like sandy stuff is actually sinking mud. So if you were trying to invade the castle, yeah, definitely not going to be easy. You'd be getting stuck in the mud, sinking, all your homies would be having to pull you out and stuff. During the Hundred Years War between England and France, the English besieged and blockaded Mont Saint-Michel three times. The French had built strong walls in the 13th century that would enable it to withstand a 30-year-long siege by the English. In 1622, monks had to cope with the arrival of prisoners imprisoned without trial. The monks were driven from the abbey in 1790, but the prison wouldn't close until 1863 when the monument was left in a state of severe dilapidation. I'm excited for this, you know, I'm like really excited. I've been for a little while actually. Been wanting to come to this place for a while. You've been before though, Jess. Jess came with a school trip. How do you remember it? All I've got from that trip is photos. We were like zooming in on people's faces and taking photos. I'll drop those photos right now. Here we are, the main entrance. Yeah, it smells like nice food already, burning wood and stuff. Look, a little bird down there. That is crazy. This is like a real castle, like the most castle castle I think I've ever been to in my life. Look at all the old arrow slits at the top. They've got a CCTV camera on that one. Oh, look at me. This is like proper medieval, isn't it? This is insane. Wow, look at the old doors. This is like original doors, like 1888. That's insane. Hey look, it's their, it's their signature dish, big omelette, big fluffy omelette. Here we go through the main like draw. This would have been a drawbridge at one point. Really windy through here. Secret doors. Sealed it. Look, these would have shut as well. Oh yeah, this is the big, this is the main door. Yeah, look at this. There you go. That's insane. Huge door. This shop looks abandoned. Yeah, it does. Yeah, look, it's all dusty on the windows. Abandoned shop. It's crazy to think like when all the monks were actually living in this and this was like only inhabited by them and it was like their castle island. I think they left in 1870. Damn. Yeah. Look, that's a post office still. Oh yeah. Because there's about 40 residents here. Still 40 people living. Yeah, that's crazy. Look at this. So this is like proper traditional old French house. Beautiful. Reminds me of the oldest house in France. Which way do we go? Hey, look. Suits of armor and stuff. That one's like a bird. Penknives. Sheriff. Let's go get one of those. Look at these like fake swords and stuff. Wow. It's like a pirate gun in there. Yeah. They look well made as well. They're not just like crap toy ones. Yeah, they're really good. He's got no bum. What are you doing here? Wow. Even the gift shops in this place are super cool. Look at that boat and the old rug. I think we're just going to do like ground floor, say ground floor. We're going to do like floor level first and then go up the stairs and see what we can find up. All the original like signs and stuff is still here as well. I liken it, Jess. Wow. Look at that. All the way up to the top. Birds on the wall. Everything here is still like old fashioned and I look inside. Yeah, look, little peephole, little shooting hole, arrow holes and stuff. You can see onto the beach. That's the easy way in that, isn't it? I know which way I'll be coming in if I was going to conquer it. Smells so good of food right now. It's making me super, super hungry. Oh my gosh. It's like Diagon Alley. It actually is. Yeah. Wow. Look at that. That architecture is phenomenal. I love this with like the old wood. Whoa. I wonder if I got that on film. Yeah, I was looking at this a minute ago. A lot of these places look abandoned, like dust in the windows, just real kind of like, look, the window is like smashed, covered in dust, real dark. Smells like chocolate heaven right now. It's Christmassy too. Yeah, it is. Smells good in there. Wow, look at this. It's like loads of souvenir stores, isn't there? They've got samurai swords in there. It's mostly restaurants and bars, actually, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Look, I'm excited to have some food in it. It looks pop. Everything's got its own like old fashioned sign every single place as well. It's literally like stepping back into the medieval times in France. Oh wow, look at that hotel. Looking back down, it's beautiful as well. Real nice. And look at this tiny little doorway. I think that's where people live. Yeah. Secret little doorways in and stuff. It's so quiet this, isn't it? Compared to usual. What is it? Mid-November? No, no, no. End of November. We are on the 30th of November right now. So yeah, if you want to come, it is nippy, but like a couple jackets and stuff, fine. It's only my hands and my nose, which is a bit cold. Yeah, but the crowds that are usually here, this is just a world of difference. They've got the 24-hour pizza machine here. 24-hour panini. Is this our hotel? I hope not. It's closed. I'm sure that was the one we booked. Well, I'm going to check right now. Yeah, let's have a look. This really is the hotel we booked. It says you can check in past 2.30 and it's gone 2.30. 300 meters down on the left from the desk. The chapel up there, this is actually stained glass. I'm not sure if you can tell. Hey, I'm starting to get super hungry right now. There are so many birds here. It's like a magical experience, isn't it? It's a one-in-a-lifetime sort of thing, this. Every detail here is so nice. So actually making our way up to the top right now. I'm slowly getting there. This is the church, I think. Yeah, I think there's multiple chapels. It smells like frankincense in here. It's natural rock, still. So super peaceful in there. It was all in silence. There were signs everywhere, silence. Smelled like frankincense. Real nice. Here we are, back where we were. Oh, look, have you got any euros, Jess? I don't think I have a 2 euro there. You don't? Damn. Look, a Christmas shop. It's just got Christmas things. It's Christmas. Look up there, there's like a knight in armour there. Oh, isn't there? A rusty knight at the bottom. Yeah. See, look, this is where people must live, Jess. They say 350 steps. Oh yeah, is it 350 to the top? I think so, yeah. Oh, here we go. We should have been counting. I remember when we came for the school trip and we were all moaning so badly. Were you? Oh, it's so hot. Did you come in hot degrees in the summer? Yeah, it was hot, yeah. There's a lot of building work going on right now. Scaffold, noisy tools. I did read that it's pretty constant, the work on it. I guess they've got to keep refurbing it, haven't they? Yeah. So the abbey is actually 11th century. Still standing, still working on it. Wow, look at that. Reminds me of Scottish architecture a bit. Look at this door. Oh, I'm out of breath right now. Imagine working a building on a place like this. You'd have to be so careful. You've broken a thing, you'd feel awful. So here we go. This is the first room where you get your tickets and stuff like that. Look at that. Wow. Here we go then. Tickets. And we're through. It's hard because the camera's not doing this any justice, but like all of this is monumental. It's absolutely huge. It's massive and it makes you feel like a shrunken human. Got a little cut through there. I want to go through there. I don't know how much we actually get access to, but last night I was watching some guys who they let into the secret passageways and secret ladders and stuff. That would be so cool. Monks, the old monks. Probably come back for their dinner still. It's like, up we go. My legs are aching already. So there's a lot and a lot of steps. Bird's eye view. Love the tile work. Oh, look at that. Yeah, burning the frankincense. Oh yeah. Secret ways into secret places. Oh, wow. Almost at the top, Jess. Almost there. I can hear a lot of smashing coming from in the silence. By 1876, the long process of restoration had begun. And two years later, the causeway linking it to the mainland was constructed. This was when the visitor numbers really began to grow. Yeah, I noticed that was like engravings in the stones. Numbers and stuff. Look at that seagull. Hello, boy. Got one leg. Hello, one-legged one. Look at all the birds on the water down there. It's floating on the mud. The tide's coming in there. Look, you can see it on the edge now. Wow, it's like Hogwarts. Look at this. They've got like a piece of glass. It looks like it's just straight out. Yeah, that is beautiful, isn't it? Oh yeah, look at that. A place to ourselves. It's massive, isn't it? Look at the tiles on the floor as well. This is like one of the highest rooms on the whole mountain, isn't it? Yeah, it's like right at the top now. It'd be nice eating some sandwiches or something. Creepy. Running around here at night. We will be later. They're showing us in. Wow, look at that carving. It's like Greek. Why do the faces always fall off? Must be the most delicate part, isn't it? That is insane. You never know what's quite around the next corner in this place. It's like a prison. Yeah, that's where Jess gets locked up. Wow, now that is what we call a fireplace, mate. They just stood in the fireplace. Jess is in the fireplace. Whoa, that's insane. Yeah, look at that on the grand hall. It's like another chimney. Yeah, they might have cooked there. Oh yeah, and then they got lights. That's lights, actually. Remnants of stuff. Wow, Sam, look. Wow, there's a bird in there. What are you doing there, little bird? Look at the size of these doors. It's getting windier and colder. It is, it's super cold up there. Oh, look, that window is smashed. Whoa, these pillars, man. Yeah, it does. Crypt. Cryptes Gros Pillars. What a funny room. I wonder what this is holding up. Something big. Is this under the main... I don't know if it means actual crypt. Do you reckon this is underneath the main peak? More little canoes and alleyways. Be careful not to fall over in this place. What the hell is that for? It's some sort of tomb. I really like this, walking around here. It's like I'm in a medieval game or something. A medieval reality. Wow, this reminds me of Slane's Castle, but in Scotland. Whoa, look, the waterwheel. That is old, man. You can hear all the pigeons. They're all coming in through this window. Damn, what a view. Whoa, that's blinding. This is the thing where they used to load stuff in and out of the castle. The slide. Imagine sliding down that. I wonder if people ever went up and down on it. I would, definitely. Hello, Pidge. It's a big pigeon. Hello, Pidge. That goes really deep. He's raw still. I wonder what it's for. The things that it's actually on are just so rusty. Oh yeah, much like this canoe, it's crushed. Wow, it's like chapel after chapel sort of thing. Yeah, there's so many rooms to this place. Look at this. You can see it used to have much more detail. It's just worn down over the years. What's down there? It's locked doors. The basement of this place would be so cool. North-south stairs. This sounds hollow. Wow. Yeah, someone fixed this here in 1940. I wonder what they used all these different rooms for. We should have got the headsets. I'm not sure what that is. It's crazy that history is just like in these walls. Yeah, there is a lot of plaster. Oh, it's creepy. Look at that. It's not even real. It's not even made, probably. What a weird little nook. I wonder what that leads to. Look at the floor in here as well. Caged off. Wow. I think this is the biggest castle we would have ever been in, isn't it? Wow, this is a proper spiral staircase. You wouldn't want to fall down these stairs, I tell you now. I think it would have been much easier to move them all back in the day if they just made slides. And here we go, back through. Oh yeah, what slides down all those staircases. So I think we're going to try and hunt down some food, see if we can find something to eat. But you're going to get to see both sides. The best of both worlds is Mont Saint-Michel. Into the gardens. Hello, little one. Hello. Hello. You're friendly. Hello, little ones. What are you thinking? Wow, beautiful gardens, blinded by the sun a bit. There you go. I shouldn't just chill in a garden with a view like this. Insane, man. Just looking back up at it. I wish we could get right into the top of there. That's probably where those people used to come on on boats and stuff, look. That? Is that the prisoner hole? What? Oh yeah. Jess's jail cell window. Arrow slits. Oh yeah. Saint Michael's mound. That's what I've been calling it. That's what I thought it was before we came. I don't know if that's just the Somerset meaning. Saint Michael's mound. What's that? Saint Michael's mound. Oh, is it? Yeah, and this is Mont Saint-Michel. Look at those. That's a nice piece of wood though, man. You could make something nice out of that, like a nice table or something. Mud baths. Mud baths, 11 euros. So yeah, the abbey actually is 11 euros each, unless you're European and under 25, then you get it for free. I think it's definitely worth it, even though the building work was on, it was only in that small part. So yeah, definitely worth the 11 euros. But apart from that, to actually come here, it's totally free. Here's the exit then. That was great. I really enjoyed that. It's windy. What the hell? Back where we started then. Well, let's have a little mission around and see if we can find something to eat. Maybe get a warm drink somewhere. No way down, and this is the entrance to the hotel now, apparently. So let's check it out. Here we are, reception. Look at this place. There's nobody here. Restaurant downstairs is very nice. It's so old. Yeah. There's building works and the music, but look, this is where we are. We have to be quick or we're going to get copyrighted. But here's our room. She's took us all the way back up to the top of that abbey. That's the mountain. Yeah. Michael's mound. This is our room for the night. Nice, man. Nice. It's pretty much the roof. Except from that drilling. She did say that would stop soon. They're replacing the window. Sea view. We got the sea view. So they actually upgraded us for free. I guess there's no one really here, so. Oh, that's nice. Oh, yeah. A little shower. How it's a really nice shot looking back in there. Look how cozy that looks. I like it. Me too. But if you're wondering how much a room out of season cost you at this sort of room, it's 80 pounds. So I'm not sure what that is in euros or dollars. We can type in on Google 80 pounds. I think that's a real fair price. In England, it would be like 150 pound, 200 pound to stay at like a tourist place like this. Yeah. Right in the center. Definitely. Yeah. Definitely worth it. Let's go get some food anyway. Yeah. The side window is really nice, too. Sunset over there. Back at where we just were. We're gonna have food here, I think. I think we're gonna have some spaghetti. Let's do it. Jess is already eating. Oh, booyah. Well-needed meal. We've been surviving off like not pot noodles, but like the wicked ones in Tesco. Raw bagels. Butter in like vegan salami. So this is the first meal we've had in like three, four days. First proper meal. I'm excited. Next to the fire. Mission accomplished. Finally some decent food. Yeah. How are you feeling? Tired now. Yeah. The tiredness is kicking in. If it wasn't for this fire, I'd be freezing in here. It's putting me asleep, that fire though. I feel like I'm in a real life ASMR restaurant tavern. Video. And look, completely empty. I was gonna say there's two people there, but yeah, it's completely empty. We've got the whole place to ourselves. That guy. That guy was just getting blasted. The guy sat next to the fire. I'm not sure if you see him, but massive bits of fire now landed on his lap and he's like. And a massive one came and he's like in the corner. And then he left. This is how quiet it is this time of year. This is prime eating time right now. Empty. Made it back to our car. We're now taking our luggage all the way back. We've got the shuttle here. We had to run for it, didn't we? Yeah. Made some American friends. We actually had to completely sprint for it. We're back. It's freezing cold. Like so freezing. It's unbelievable. We just stood on the bridge for like half an hour. Trying to get some night photos. If you want to see the photos of this place, make sure to head over to Instagram. But yeah, it's like minuses, but here we are. But we're going to go and dump the bags real quick. And then we'll be back out through the drawbridge again. It looks even more medieval. Yeah, it does. It's medieval. What do you call it? Joust. Medieval joust or something. Joust each other off the thing. I like it in this bar. It's old. It's so quiet now. It's eerie. Yeah. Right. Let's get back to the room anyway. Here we are coming straight out the door. Just greeted with that. It's nice at night. All lit up. So we're going to take you for a little stroll through town round again and see if we can find any places we didn't manage to find earlier. But in the dark, it's like a whole nother experience. It's still quite early though. It's only like seven o'clock maybe. It does feel late. Feels like everyone's in bed. But really no one really lives here and everyone else is having dinner. Look at all the lanterns lit up now. So quiet. It feels like someone's going to jump out on you. Even the restaurant, even like the main fish restaurant here is shut right now. It's weird that that was supposed to be our hotel. We need to go up there, up those stairs there. That's where we haven't been yet. That's the restaurant we were in earlier. It's still really quiet. Look how much the steps have been used. Oh yeah, they're all like dipped in. It's pitch black. I don't know if it's hella windy or something. Oh look, we're actually at that cutthroat we wanted to go through. Yeah, look, here's the main. Where you come in. There's the Abbey. Oh, so windy and cold. You can see into like the hotels and stuff. See the cliff. Wow, this is steep. I wonder if you can go in at this sort of time, man. All the lights are on, that's mad. It's 4.30. Oh, is it? Up on one of the top pathways now. Hey look, there's like this city, town, closest town over there. There's the road. We're gonna follow the stairs up back towards the Abbey. We're gonna have to go back down and take another set of stairs to do the outside perimeter. What the hell's that? A cat? I thought it was a fox for some reason. So right now, if you're wondering where we are, there is the ocean and these are all houses right on the edge. So maybe this is the upper perimeter wall. What is this then? It's a cafe. It's got a panel and a glass on. Someone's breaking into the cafe. Maybe you could just go in the history museum right now. It's not abandoned, it's just an unattended museum. Look, what's all this in here then? Yeah, look, this is all part of the museum The bells. Boulders. I love how you can still see that here. It's crazy. This would have been one tall boulder. Yeah, it would have. I love the lanterns everywhere, man. It's real nice. It's weird, there's defibrillators, heart defibrillators everywhere. It's because there's so many stairs. Obviously, we've got to use our phone just for a bit of light. That takes you back up to the abbey. You ready for this perimeter walk? It's cold, isn't it? This is dead end then, is it? No, is it? It's like a turret. Look at all the points, man. Imagine doing that scaffolding drop. What? Telescope. Oh yeah, you scared me then. How much is it, sorry? One euro. I've got euro, I think. Hold the light in, sir. Oh wait, it's pitch black. Yeah, did you put it in at all? Yeah. That's the now look in the telescope, isn't it? Now you have to look in the telescope. You might be able to see the sea lights through there. Oh yeah, telescope, pitch black light. Can you see anything? All right, let's get back to... Oh yeah, you can go this way. Classic. That's a classic Jess move. For some reason in my head, I thought you would be looking at like stars and stuff. It was there for stargazing. This is someone's Christmas bundle. Welcome to the abandoned Christmas Fermi closet. Hey look, they're looking for a cat. Free cats. Free cats? Yeah. No, help us feed. They live here, they're just stray. It says help us feed and cure the cats or whatever. I'll take them home. I'll take them back to England. They'll probably hate it. Just come behind that bit. Just there, park on behind that. Oh, what's it doing? Strong cats mate. It's the iron cat competition. Oh no. Where are we above now? What the hell is that? I don't remember anything. Yeah, look, all the roofs fell in and stuff. It's abandoned. Yeah, I know, there's like no doors on it. Look at the door, it's just trash. It's weird that it's in abandoned places. I can feel icicles going under my nose. I kind of like it, it adds to the medieval effect. What's this little hole there? Is that a ladder? Oh, Sam, there's a massive spider there. Where? Can you not see it? I saw its shadow, I saw that. What is it? Nothing, it's just a bollock you've fallen down that hole. The perimeter wall then. Yeah, it's got all the iron. We'd be sat here in the summer, the view there is the ocean, having ice cream, crepes and stuff. Yeah, it's so busy though, that's not even a problem. Yeah, it must have used to be like a cafe. Well, if you've got enough money, you know what you want to do, you want to come here and you want to open a cafe. Something a little bit different to everyone else. Drop it down in the comments guys, I want to know if any of you live on this castle island or would it be a little bit too remote? Look at that little window. Would you live here? Would you live on this island? I don't know, I would for a bit, probably. I wonder what the dill is for a post here. There's a post office here actually, yeah. Look at the stairs, they're like worn out. Oh no, there's a roof or something. It's a slope isn't it? It's a slide. You were saying about the medieval slides earlier. This alleyway down into the town. Super nice man. Just been getting some awesome photos here, right at this spot. Yeah, that is such a nice shot. Look at these houses as well. Let's get back down there. Jess is freezing. It took us like over a half hour to get these photos. This is like Christmas corridor. Reminds me of just when I think of like Victorian times or like Tudor times maybe. So nice at night. This is the restaurant we was at earlier. Oh, gelato. This looks lovely right now. So we're back in the restaurant right now. Yeah, it's freezing out there. Hello little puss. So we just left the restaurant. Had spaghetti again, I forgot to film it. Oh my god, I just went to the restaurant and just had spaghetti again and Jess had chips and some bread. It's the only place open at night. Yeah, it is. Look behind us, it's like the tiniest little alleyway. You can see that. Do you know where that leads? Right to our room. Right to our house. And look what you can see through the middle at the top. Run away from Jess. Run away, run away. But that is the end of this video. I think that wraps up pretty nicely. What an incredible place. Yeah, I love it here. I'm so glad I came here. It's like a one in a lifetime opportunity. It's magical here. If you're in the area, 100% come here. I mean, it's worth coming just here. Just fly France, come here and fly home or drive. Just do what you got to do. We'll probably show him some in the morning, do you think? Yeah, we'll catch up with you in the morning probably. Yeah. Good night. Good night. It's the morning after and we're heading to the shuttle to get our way back. It's lovely out the window this morning. Yeah. It's still pretty quiet here, even in the morning. Who's this guy? He's coming up backwards. Get in this shot. Goodbye, the mound. Goodbye, Michael's mound.