The Good Life France Magazine SPRING 2016 | Page 56

Fou-Fou seemed resigned to it all, but the human faces all around spanned delight (isn’t this so magical?); frustration (queue at restaurant); panic (longer queue for the toilet); wonder (sun piercing dark rain clouds like an email from heaven); annoyance (two children disappearing in opposite directions, both beckoning impatiently), and piety (sombre countenances turned heavenward, some looking as though they’ve just stopped off on the way to the grave).

My many visits to the island serve to confirm that this is par for the course.

In a way you can’t help being excited by it all, but I’m guessing the majority can’t quite put their finger on what it is about Mont St-Michel that’s so special. Sure, there is its non-secular history, and even among the most heathen of us I suppose that earns a modicum of respect.

For me it’s the architecture, and the way the whole thing has been heaped up in a way that no doubt made sense at the time, but has resulted in a maze of ascending lanes and stepways that leave you breathless. For others it may well be the islandness.