
Mont Saint Michel Reveals New Secrets - curtis
https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/mont-saint-michel-reveals-new-secrets
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robotmay
Mont Saint Michel is certainly a fantastic place, however I must admit that I
got a bit bored of walking around the cathedral after about the 20th empty
room of pillars ;)

Unfortunately a lot of monuments/castles in France suffer from that feeling of
emptiness; I assume they were cleared out during the revolution. Your best
chance of seeing interesting things as well as interesting buildings seems to
be to look for privately-owned/smaller castles that are open to the public. I
went to a particularly nice one a couple of years ago where I believe the tour
guide was a member of the family who owned it, and they had a fantastic
collection of old furniture, art, weapons etc. And the biggest holly tree I
have ever seen (we're talking castle-wall height).

It's something we kinda take for granted in the UK. We have a lot of ruined
castles that are obviously pretty empty, but if it's got a roof it probably
has lots of old stuff to see inside too.

I do like the number of castles in France though; there's always something to
see nearby. It's fun to be in a place with so many historic buildings, like
here in Wales (~600 castles)!

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sametmax
Castels are nowhere close to the most interesting things to see in France.

"Le puy du fou" ([https://www.puydufou.com/fr](https://www.puydufou.com/fr)),
"le palais idéal du factor cheval"
([http://www.facteurcheval.com/histoire/palais.html](http://www.facteurcheval.com/histoire/palais.html)),
"le gouffre de padirac" ([https://www.vallee-dordogne.com/grottes-et-
gouffres/le-gouff...](https://www.vallee-dordogne.com/grottes-et-gouffres/le-
gouffre-de-padirac/visiter)), la via ferrata de peille
([http://peille.free.fr/index.php](http://peille.free.fr/index.php)) or "la
cité des sciences" ([http://www.cite-sciences.fr/fr/accueil/](http://www.cite-
sciences.fr/fr/accueil/)) are exemples of much more exotic, fun, interesting
and unique things to do in France.

Stop doing the things they tell you to do on TV.

Cheese and wine will only take you so far.

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alphakappa
Thank you for these examples. I visited the links but I am not entirely sure
what I’m looking at (sorry, this may also have to do with being a non-French
speaker). Would you be so kind as to provide your thoughts on what’s the
interesting bit about these places?

~~~
sametmax
That would take a lot more time that I'm willing to invest.

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laurent123456
For anyone interested in going there, try to do so off season or even in the
middle of winter when there's almost nobody there. It's an amazing place
regardless, but it's even better when you can enjoy it without all the crowd.

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conqueso
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8y4lttBvFM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8y4lttBvFM)
(headphones highly recommended)

~~~
twic
Although i can't help but think he was thinking of the Cornish one, being
Cornish:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael%27s_Mount](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael%27s_Mount)

~~~
conqueso
He was thinking about both! The track is 2 parts, the first is Mount St.
Michel, second is St. Michael's Mount. I believe it was written in France, as
he wrote the following on his site a few moths ago: "Been asked quite a few
times about the bell at the beginning of Mt Saint Michel. Yes it is from the
bell in the smaller chapel on the island, I was staying in a house very close
to it with a lovely french girl, I sampled it while I was having my breakfast
on a very lush sunny morning. Track was about half written by that point and
fitted in just right at the beginning. Just recorded it with the internal mic
on the laptop :)"

