Mont Saint Michel Tide in Normandy 2024-2025

At one moment it's coastal, at another—an island in the open sea, cut off from the land with 15-meter high tide

Best time: all year round on selected dates

"A medieval capsule trapped by time and tide"—that's how poetic narrators describe Mont Saint Michel, and honestly, the site lives up to these words. A gothic-style monastery nestled 900 stair-steps atop the mountain is named after Archangel Michael, and so is the mountain itself. Thanks to extremely high tides and rising water levels to 49 feet (15 meters), the mountain lives a kind of double life. Imagine you see it surrounded by sea water some 1968 feet (600 meters) off the land, and suddenly the water starts flowing away, and what was an island just recently is already a mountain stuck in shallow waters.

In the past, the site truly used to be a part of the mainland until the sea water level rose, and this eventually led to the erosion of the coast. So today, Mont Saint Michel is united with the land with a causeway. Around three million visitors make use of this causeway to witness the gem of Normandy drowning and rising from seawater. This number is even more striking when compared with the number of islands' fifty full-time residents.

Best Time to Visit Mont Saint

The natural wonder can be experienced monthly for a few days. French Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service, known as SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine), regularly updates the forecasted times for low and high tides. However, SHOM advises adding 5 minutes to the forecast as the predictions are not entirely precise. During high tides, the water covers the walkway bridge and stays that way for about an hour.

Despite forecasted dates, remember that nature can never be 100 percent predictable, and it's too dangerous to roam in the bay without a certified guide. You have to be especially careful around spring tides, when the water flows 9 miles (15 km) away and then comes back. Additionally, it's important to travel to Mont Saint Michel with a guide because of the risk of quicksand.

Getting to Mont Saint Michel

There are multiple ways to get to Mont Saint Michel. The spot is situated around 221 miles (356 km) from Paris, where you can take the A13 motorway towards Caen by car and then turn onto A84. Several car parks are located about 1.6 miles (2.5 km) from Mont Saint Michel, and you can take the shuttle bus to Mont Saint Michel. The shuttles run every 15 minutes. You can also take a train to Pontorson or hop on a plane to Dinard International Airport or Rennes airport.