Page 14 - Experiential Magazine - Vol 6

DESTINATION SPOTLIGHT

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Few places in France attract grow wheat or other crops. In the Some 9 km. west of
more tourists than Mont-St- 19th Century, tilled fields gradually believe it to be the lost Abbaye Avranches on Route D911. Park
Michel, and for good reason. But gave way to pastureland for cattle, de Maudane, where saints Pair on the left just before the village
few people who visit this area know but the bocage was left standing. and Victor were said to have lived church, in a lot alongside a stream
that a drive of less than half an Set in the heart of bocage country, during early medieval times. Some pouring into a tidal inlet. Walk
hour will bring you to a spectacu- the Abbaye de la Lucerne can be believe that the place has had across the tiny bridge to the east-
lar vantage point to view Mont-St- reached on foot from Carolles by religious significance since the 6th ern side of the stream, then go to
Michel across the bay, away from serious walkers. This small region Century, perhaps as a sanctuary for your right, toward the sea. You’ll
all the tourists and traffic. Here between the coastal road and the lepers. You’ll also walk past traces see Mont-St-Michel looming in the
you can savor it in the quiet of the sea has been spared development of a Roman fort, in the form of distance. The trail quickly veers to
countryside, far from the crowds and features a fine network of long dirt walls in the forest and the left, paralleling the tidal areas.
– and then, if the weather’s right, walking trails. On the Pointe de undergrowth. You can walk for miles, enjoying
enjoy a visit to the busy beaches in Champeaux, which juts out into If you don’t have time to explore
nearby Jullouville and Carolles. the Bay of Mont-St-Michel just the region but still the views and the rural solitude.
Once you leave the main roads, south of Carolles, rocky windswept want an impressive
you enter the bocage, a world of cliff tops form a narrow strip of view of Mont-St-Mi-
small green pastures and farmland moorland overlooking the sea. The chel, drive to Genets,
surrounded by fences of flowers, thin soil supports little growth, but
bushes, and trees, their sides often it is speckled with wildflowers a
pruned into a sort of living wall. good part of the year. Through the
The bocage emerged in medieval seaside highlands, the tiny Lude
times as a way to preserve a little River has carved a deep valley to
woodland while expanding fields to the sea, filled with a humid, jungle
like forest. You’ll pass 17th-Cen-
tury La Cabane Vauban (Vauban
Cabin). From here, you get a
dramatic view of Mont-St-Michel
rising up from the sea far in the
distance.
About 300 feet beyond La Cabane
Vauban lie impossible-to-find
vestiges of a medieval monastery.

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