00:00Mont Saint-Michel is a tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy, France.
00:14The island lies approximately 1 km off France's northwestern coast, at the mouth of the Cousnon
00:19River near Avranches and is 7 hectares in area.
00:23The mainland part of the commune is 393 hectares in area so the total surface of the commune
00:28is 400 hectares.
00:30As of 2019, the island had a population of 29.
00:34The commune's position on an island just a few hundred meters from land made it accessible
00:38at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey.
00:42And defensible as the incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would be assailants.
00:47The island remained unconquered during the Hundred Years' War.
00:50A small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433.
00:548.
00:55Louis XI recognized the benefits of its natural defense and turned it into a prison.
01:00The abbey was used regularly as a prison during the ancient regime.
01:04Mont Saint-Michel and its surrounding bay were inscribed on the UNESCO list of World
01:08Heritage Sites in 1979 for their unique aesthetic and importance as a Catholic site.
01:14It is visited by more than 3 million people each year.
01:17Over 60 buildings within the commune are protected in France as historical monuments.
01:22In 2023, President Macron marked 1,000 years of the abbey and the success of the hydraulic
01:27dam project and the elevated pedestrian bridge in restoring water flow in the bay, making
01:32the mound an island again.
01:34Geography formation Now a rocky tidal island, the mound occupied
01:37dry land in prehistoric times.
01:40As sea levels rose, erosion reshaped the coastal landscape, and several outcrops of granite
01:45emerged in the bay, having resisted the wear and tear of the ocean better than the surrounding
01:50rocks.
01:51These included Lillemer, Mont-Dal, Tamboulaine, the island just to the north, and Mont Tambay,
01:56later called Mont Saint-Michel.
01:59Mont Saint-Michel consists of leucogranite which solidified from an underground intrusion
02:03of molten magma about 525 million years ago, during the Cambrian period.
02:09As one of the younger parts of the Manchellian granitic batholith, early studies of Mont
02:13Saint-Michel by French geologists sometimes describe the leucogranite of Mont as granulite.
02:19But this granitic meaning of granulite is now obsolete.
02:22The mound has a circumference of about 960 meters and its highest point is 92 meters
02:26above sea level.
02:28Tides The tides vary greatly, at roughly 14 meters
02:31between the highest and lowest water marks, popularly nicknamed, Saint Michael in peril
02:36of the sea, by medieval pilgrims making their way across the flats.
02:40The mound can still pose dangers for visitors who avoid the causeway and attempt the hazardous
02:45walk across the sands from the neighboring coast.
02:48The Mont Saint-Michel in 2014 With the new bridge the connection between
02:51Mont Saint-Michel and the mainland has changed over the centuries.
02:55Previously connected by a tidal causeway and covered only at low tide, this was converted
03:00into a raised causeway in 1879, preventing the tide from scouring the silt around the
03:05mound.
03:06The coastal flats have been polarized to create pastureland, decreasing the distance between
03:10the shore and the island, and the Cousnon river has been canalized, reducing the dispersion
03:15of the flow of water.
03:17These factors have all encouraged silting up of the bay.
03:20In July 2014, the new bridge, by architect Dietmar Feichtinger, was opened to the public.
03:26The light bridge allows water to flow freely around the island and improves the efficiency
03:30of the now operational dam.
03:32The bridge, which cost 209 million euros, was opened by President François Hollande.
03:38That is all.
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