Walked to the abbey today. The Japanese stopped their bus to offer Moosiesahn a drive but I needed some air ( see last post) and the walk was the only exercise I will get. The town of Mont St Michel is nothing special but the abbey is a marvel. When you enter you first come to a Medieval street lined with shops, restaurants and hotels. The whole thing is rather gross as they sell plastic swords, berets and all sorts of dreck. Then again, in the Middle Ages, towns grew up around Cathedrals and abbeys and everything from plenary indulgences to saint's shinbones were sold ( you could get a knockdown price if you bought three.)
To give you an idea of just how cold it is here look at the icicle hanging from the gargoyle in the second picture.I attended Mass with six Benedictine Monks and eight nuns at noon in a 1300 year old chapel under the main abbey. The hyms were amazing and were accompanied by a harp and flute. Put me in mind of the fiddles at St Margaret of Scotland in Broad Cove Marsh.
Doc Campbell Moment - I got to say words like apse and nave and transept with a flying butress or two thrown in. Hey Doc, if a picture is worth a thousand words, I guess my essay on European Monasticism is finally complete.
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