A polder ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpɔldər] ) is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes . The three types of polder are:
67-544: Mont-Saint-Michel ( French pronunciation: [lə mɔ̃ sɛ̃ miʃɛl] ; Norman : Mont Saint Miché ; English: Saint Michael 's Mount ) is a tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy , France. The island lies approximately one kilometre (one-half nautical mile) off France's north-western coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and is 7 hectares (17 acres) in area. The mainland part of
134-586: A regional language . It is taught in a few colleges near Cherbourg-Octeville . In the Channel Islands , the Norman language has developed separately, but not in isolation, to form: The British and Irish governments recognize Jèrriais and Guernésiais as regional languages within the framework of the British–Irish Council . Sercquiais is in fact a descendant of the 16th-century Jèrriais used by
201-509: A €200 million project ( Projet Mont-Saint-Michel ) to build a hydraulic dam using the waters of the Couesnon and the tides to help remove the accumulated silt, and to make Mont-Saint-Michel an island again. The construction of the dam began in 2009. The project included the removal of the causeway and its visitor car park. Since April 2012, the new car park on the mainland has been located 2.5 kilometres ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi) from
268-461: A Catholic site. It is visited by more than three million people each year, and is the most-visited tourist attraction in France outside of Paris. Over 60 buildings within the commune are protected as historical monuments . In 2023, President Macron marked 1,000 years of the abbey, and the success of the hydraulic dam project and the elevated pedestrian bridge in restoring water flow in the bay, making
335-846: A church on the rocky islet. Unable to defend his kingdom against the assaults of the Vikings , the king of the Franks agreed to grant the Cotentin Peninsula and the Avranchin , including Mont-Saint-Michel traditionally linked to the city of Avranches , to the Bretons in the Treaty of Compiègne . This marked the beginning of a brief period of Breton possession of the Mont. In fact, these lands and Mont-Saint-Michel were never really included in
402-421: A new approach to the design of dikes and other water-retaining structures, based on an acceptable probability of overflowing. Risk is defined as the product of probability and consequences. The potential damage in lives, property, and rebuilding costs is compared with the potential cost of water defences. From these calculations follows an acceptable flood risk from the sea at one in 4,000–10,000 years, while it
469-516: A nonfiction book by physicist Fritjof Capra , his brother. Two friends, a poet and a politician, meet a physicist while exploring Mont-Saint-Michel, and engage in unexpectedly deep conversation. The climax of the 2016 young adult novel The Inquisitor's Tale takes place in and around Mont-Saint-Michel, as the protagonists race over the causeway to the Abbey, pursued by the King's men. Mont-Saint-Michel
536-694: A number of Old French words which have been lost in Modern French. Examples of Norman French words of Old French origin: en anc. fr. : pétale Examples of Norman French words with -ei instead of -oi in Standard French words Examples of Norman French words with c- / qu- and g- instead of ch- and j in Standard French Examples of Norman words of Norse origin: In some cases, Norse words adopted in Norman have been borrowed into French – and more recently some of
603-407: A piece of land elevated above its surroundings, with the augmentative suffix -er and epenthetical -d- . The word has been adopted in thirty-six languages. The Netherlands is frequently associated with polders, as its engineers became noted for developing techniques to drain wetlands and make them usable for agriculture and other development. This is illustrated by the saying "God created
670-513: A raised causeway in 1879, preventing the tide from scouring the silt around the mount. The coastal flats have been polderised to create pastureland, decreasing the distance between the shore and the island, and the Couesnon river has been canalised , reducing the dispersion of the flow of water. These factors have all encouraged silting -up of the bay. In June 2006, French prime minister Dominique de Villepin and regional authorities announced
737-534: Is a langue d'oïl . The name "Norman French" is sometimes also used to describe the administrative languages of Anglo-Norman and Law French used in England . For the most part, the written forms of Norman and modern French are mutually intelligible . The thirteenth-century philosopher Roger Bacon was the first to distinguish it along with other dialects such as Picard and Bourguignon . Today, although it does not enjoy any official status, some reports of
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#1732791242138804-532: Is a World Wonder in Civilization VI . Mont-Saint-Michel is featured in Onimusha 3: Demon Siege in which the abbey is overrun by demons in both the 16th and 21st centuries and subsequently destroyed. A fictionalized version of the island, Beaumont-Saint-Denis, serves as the location for Sniper Elite 5 ' s third mission. The castle is also the inspiration for the site of the climactic final battle in
871-508: Is credited with adding major fortifications to the abbey-mount, building towers, successive courtyards, and strengthening the ramparts. The islet belongs to the French commune of Le Mont-Saint-Michel, in the département of Manche , in Normandy. The nearest significant town, with an SNCF train station, is Pontorson , with a population of slightly over 4,000. Mont-Saint-Michel belongs to
938-592: Is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry , which commemorates the Norman Conquest . Harold Godwinson is pictured on the tapestry rescuing two Norman knights from the quicksand in the tidal flats during the Breton–Norman war . Norman ducal patronage financed the spectacular Norman architecture of the abbey in subsequent centuries. In 1067, the monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel gave its support to William
1005-608: Is one in 100–2,500 years for a river flood. The particular established policy guides the Dutch government to improve flood defences as new data on threat levels become available. Major Dutch polders and the years they were laid dry include Beemster (1609–1612), Schermer (1633–1635), and Haarlemmermeerpolder (1852). Polders created as part of the Zuiderzee Works include Wieringermeerpolder (1930), Noordoostpolder (1942) and Flevopolder (1956–1968) Several cities on
1072-562: Is the location of the Nest, their ultimate destination. In "Coming Home," Daryl's group finally reaches it. The Mont-Saint-Michel–inspired village and castle from Tangled return in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure and Tangled: Before Ever After . Norman language Previously used: Norman or Norman French ( Normaund , French : Normand [nɔʁmɑ̃] , Guernésiais : Normand , Jèrriais : Nouormand )
1139-414: The pré salé (salt meadow) makes agneau de pré-salé ( ' salt-meadow / salt-marsh lamb ' ), a local specialty that may be found on the menus of restaurants that depend on income from the many visitors to the mount. The connection between Mont-Saint-Michel and the mainland has changed over the centuries. Previously connected by a tidal causeway uncovered only at low tide, this was converted into
1206-665: The Cambrian period , as one of the younger parts of the Mancellian granitic batholith . Early studies of Mont-Saint-Michel by French geologists sometimes describe the leucogranite of the Mont as "granulite", but this granitic meaning of granulite is now obsolete. The mount has a circumference of about 960 m (3,150 ft) and its highest point is 92 m (302 ft) above sea level . The tides vary greatly, at roughly 14 metres (46 ft) between highest and lowest water marks. Popularly nicknamed "St. Michael in peril of
1273-569: The French language in Canada generally. Joual , a working class sociolect of Quebec , in particular exhibits a Norman influence. For example the word "placoter" can mean both to splash around or to chatter comes from the Normand French word "clapoter" which means the same thing. Polder The ground level in drained marshes subsides over time. All polders will eventually be below
1340-637: The Hundred Years' War . A small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433. Louis XI recognised the benefits of its natural defence and turned it into a prison. The abbey was used regularly as a prison during the Ancien Régime . Mont-Saint-Michel and its surrounding bay were inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979 for its unique aesthetic and importance as
1407-739: The New York Sun and Paul Holt with the London Daily Express . Jubilant crowds of locals greeted Brougher, Holt and MacGowan, and Brougher signed the Golden Book, the island's record of visiting nobility, at the mayor's invitation. The abbey was also used as a prison for the first time since the French Revolution when male collaborators with the Germans were jailed there. Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay were added to
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#17327912421381474-511: The Order of Saint Michael in 1469, he intended that the abbey church of Mont-Saint-Michel become the chapel for the order, but because of its great distance from Paris, his intention could never be realized. The wealth and influence of the abbey extended to many daughter foundations, including St Michael's Mount in Cornwall . Its popularity and prestige as a centre of pilgrimage waned with
1541-657: The Organization of World Heritage Cities . Since June 2001, following the appeal addressed to them in 2000 by Jacques Fihey , Bishop of Coutances and Avranches, a community of monks and nuns of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem , sent from the mother-house of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais in Paris, have been living as a community on Mont-Saint-Michel. They replaced the Benedictine monks who returned to
1608-786: The Paraíba Valley region (in the state of São Paulo ) have polders on land claimed from the floodplains around the Paraíba do Sul river. Bangladesh has 139 polders, of which 49 are sea-facing, while the rest are along the numerous distributaries of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River delta. These were constructed in the 1960s to protect the coast from tidal flooding and reduce salinity incursion. They reduce long-term flooding and waterlogging following storm surges from tropical cyclones . They are also cultivated for agriculture. The Jiangnan region, at
1675-538: The Reformation , and by the time of the French Revolution there were scarcely any monks in residence. The abbey was closed and converted into a prison, initially to hold clerical opponents of the republican regime. High-profile political prisoners followed. By 1836, influential figures—including Victor Hugo —had launched a campaign to restore what was seen as a national architectural treasure. The prison
1742-486: The Yangtze River Delta , has a long history of constructing polders. Most of these projects were performed between the 10th and 13th centuries. The Chinese government also assisted local communities in constructing dikes for swampland water drainage. The Lijia (里甲) self-monitoring system of 110 households under a lizhang (里长) headman was used for the purposes of service administration and tax collection in
1809-601: The mount an island again. Now a rocky tidal island , the mount occupied dry land in prehistoric times. As sea levels rose, erosion reshaped the coastal landscape, and several outcrops of granite emerged in the bay, having resisted the wear and tear of the ocean better than the surrounding rocks. These included Lillemer , Mont Dol , Tombelaine (the island just to the north), and Mont Tombe, later called Mont-Saint-Michel. Mont-Saint-Michel consists of leucogranite which solidified from an underground intrusion of molten magma about 525 million years ago , during
1876-491: The " Joret line " ( ligne Joret ) separates the northern and southern dialects of the Norman language (the line runs from Granville, Manche to the French-speaking Belgian border in the province of Hainaut and Thiérache ). Dialectal differences also distinguish western and eastern dialects. Three different standardized spellings are used: continental Norman, Jèrriais, and Dgèrnésiais. These represent
1943-522: The 11th century, William of Volpiano , the Italian architect who had built Fécamp Abbey in Normandy, was chosen by Richard II, Duke of Normandy , to be the building contractor. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey, daringly placing the transept crossing at the top of the mount. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for this weight. These formed the basis for
2010-542: The 11th century. The oldest extant polder is the Achtermeer polder, from 1533. As a result of flooding disasters, water boards called waterschap (when situated more inland) or hoogheemraadschap (near the sea, mainly used in the Holland region) were set up to maintain the integrity of the water defences around polders, maintain the waterways inside a polder, and control the various water levels inside and outside
2077-524: The Conqueror in his claim to the English throne. This he rewarded with properties and grounds on the English side of the Channel, including a small island off the southwestern coast of Cornwall which was modelled after Mont-Saint-Michel and became a Norman priory named St Michael's Mount of Penzance . During the Hundred Years' War , English forces unsuccessfully besieged Mont-Saint-Michel (which
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2144-454: The English words used in French can be traced back to Norman origins. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Norman and other languages and dialects spoken by the new rulers of England were used during several hundred years, developing into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo-Norman French , and leaving traces of specifically Norman words that can be distinguished from
2211-582: The French Ministry of Culture have recognized it as one of the regional languages of France . When Norse Vikings from modern day Scandinavia arrived in Neustria , in the western part of the then Kingdom of the Franks , and settled the land that became known as Normandy, these North-Germanic –speaking people came to live among a local Gallo-Romance –speaking population. In time, the communities converged, so that Normandy continued to form
2278-496: The King of France, undertook a siege of the Mount. After setting fire to the village and massacring the population, he beat a retreat under the powerful walls of the abbey. The fire which he lit extended to the buildings, and the roofs fell prey to the flames. Horrified by the cruelty of his Breton ally, Philip Augustus offered Abbot Jordan a grant for the reconstruction of the abbey in the new Gothic architectural style. Charles VI
2345-623: The Rings: The Return of the King , Gondor 's capital city, Minas Tirith, is modelled on Mont-Saint-Michel. The site appears in the 2004 film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers . The town and castle in the 2010 Disney hit film Tangled are based on Mont-Saint-Michel. Terrence Malick's 2013 film To the Wonder features the abbey in its opening scenes. Mindwalk is a 1990 feature film directed by Bernt Capra, adapted from his short story based on The Turning Point ,
2412-484: The UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979, listed with criteria such as cultural, historical, and architectural significance, as well as human-created and natural beauty. In June 2023, President Emmanuel Macron visited Mont-Saint-Michel to mark the 1,000-year anniversary of the abbey. He stated that the changes since the hydraulic dam and the new bridge opened have lessened the silting, making it an island again. In
2479-450: The air combat video game The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces , in which it is an abandoned enemy fortress with still-operational anti-air turrets; it also inspired Dark Souls' New Londo Ruins. Mont-Saint-Michel appears at the end of the opening credits of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon , showing protagonists Daryl Dixon and Laurent looking out at it across zombie-infested tidelands. In "Deux Amours," it's revealed that Mont-Saint-Michel
2546-428: The air. Polders are at risk of flooding at all times, and care must be taken to protect the surrounding dikes. Dikes are typically built with locally available materials, and each material has its own risks: sand is prone to collapse owing to saturation by water; dry peat is lighter than water and potentially unable to retain water in very dry seasons. Some animals dig tunnels in the barrier, allowing water to infiltrate
2613-583: The area of south-east Ireland, where the Hiberno-Normans invaded in 1169. Norman remains in (limited) use for some very formal legal purposes in the UK, such as when the monarch gives royal assent to an Act of Parliament using the phrase, " Le Roy (la Reyne) le veult " ("The King (the Queen) wills it"). The Norman conquest of southern Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries brought the language to Sicily and
2680-444: The commune is 393 hectares (971 acres) in area so that the total surface of the commune is 400 hectares (990 acres). As of 2019, the island had a population of 29. The commune's position—on an island just a few hundred metres (yards) from land—made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey , and defensible as the incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would-be assailants. The island remained unconquered during
2747-459: The different developments and particular literary histories of the varieties of Norman. Norman may therefore be described as a pluricentric language . The Anglo-Norman dialect of Norman served as a language of administration in England following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This left a legacy of Law French in the language of English courts (though it was also influenced by Parisian French ). In Ireland, Norman remained strongest in
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2814-531: The duchy of Brittany. Around 989–990 these traditional bishoprics, dependent of the archbishopric of Rouen and that had been left vacant during the time of the Viking raids, regained their bishops. The mount gained strategic significance again in 933 when William I Longsword annexed the Cotentin Peninsula from the weakened Duchy of Brittany . This made the mount definitively part of Normandy , and
2881-484: The end of the occupation of France. After the Allies ' initial D-Day invasion of Normandy that began on June 6, 1944, many exhausted German soldiers retreated to strongholds like Mont-Saint-Michel. On August 1, 1944, a single American soldier – Private Freeman Brougher of Pennsylvania and the 72nd Publicity Service Battalion – reached and liberated Mont-Saint-Michel accompanied by two British reporters, Gault MacGowan of
2948-604: The equivalent lexical items in French: Other borrowings, such as canvas , captain , cattle and kennel , exemplify how Norman retained Latin /k/ that was not retained in French. In the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament are confirmed with the words " Le Roy le veult " ("The King wishes it") and other Norman phrases are used on formal occasions as legislation progresses. Norman immigrants to North America also introduced some "Normanisms" to Quebec French and
3015-539: The former Duchy of Normandy : the Channel Islands and the Cotentin Peninsula ( Cotentinais ) in the west, and the Pays de Caux ( Cauchois dialect ) in the east. Ease of access from Paris and the popularity of the coastal resorts of central Normandy, such as Deauville , in the 19th century led to a significant loss of distinctive Norman culture in the central low-lying areas of Normandy. Norman French preserves
3082-463: The island. Visitors can walk or use shuttles to cross the causeway. In July 2014, the new bridge, by architect Dietmar Feichtinger , was opened to the public. The light bridge allows waters to flow freely around the island and improves the efficiency of the now-operational dam. The bridge, which cost €209 million , was opened by President François Hollande . On rare occasions, tidal circumstances produce an extremely high "supertide". The new bridge
3149-469: The most urgent. He wrote four works on the building and his name remains forever attached to the resurrection of Mont-Saint-Michel. During the occupation of France in World War II , German soldiers occupied Mont-Saint-Michel, where they used St. Aubert church as a lookout post. The island was a major attraction for German tourists and soldiers, with around 325,000 German tourists from July 18, 1940, to
3216-414: The mount in 1966. They are tenants of the centre for national monuments and are not involved in the management of the abbey. The community has seven sisters and four brothers. Their life revolves around prayer, work and fraternal life. The community meets four times a day to recite the liturgical office in the abbey, or in the crypt of Notre-Dame des Trente Cierges in winter. In 2012, the community undertook
3283-551: The mount, monks included, except for those in hotels. There are 132 hotel rooms within the island's walls. The main institutions are shared by: Overtourism is a problem for Mont-Saint-Michel, exascerbated by tourists mostly visiting on day-trips, which causes overcrowding from 10:00 to 16:00, especially in the summer. The Mont-Saint-Michel foundation has introduced measures to change this pattern and reduce daytime overcrowding, including by introducing free parking after 18:30, except during July and August. Historically, Mont-Saint-Michel
3350-539: The name of the region while the original Norsemen were largely assimilated by the Gallo-Romance people, adopting their speech but still contributing some elements from Old Norse language and Norse culture. Later, when conquering England, the Norman rulers in England would eventually assimilate, thereby adopting the speech of the local English. In both cases, the elites contributed elements of their own language to
3417-457: The newly enriched languages that developed in the territories. In Normandy, the Norman language inherited only some 150 words from Old Norse. The influence on phonology is disputed, although it is argued that the retention of aspirated / h / and / k / in Norman is due to Norse influence. Norman is spoken in mainland Normandy in France , where it has no official status, but is classed as
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#17327912421383484-445: The original colonists from Jersey who settled the then uninhabited island. The last first-language speakers of Auregnais , the dialect of Norman spoken on Alderney , died during the 20th century, although some rememberers are still alive. The dialect of Herm also lapsed at an unknown date; the patois spoken there was likely Guernésiais (Herm was not inhabited all year round in the Norman culture's heyday). An isogloss termed
3551-551: The polder, with a liangzhang (粮长, grain chief) responsible for maintaining the water system and a tangzhang (塘长, dike chief) for polder maintenance. In Germany, land reclaimed by diking is called a koog . The German Deichgraf system was similar to the Dutch and is widely known from Theodor Storm 's novella The Rider on the White Horse . In southern Germany, the term polder is used for retention basins recreated by opening dikes during river floodplain restoration ,
3618-485: The polder. Water boards hold separate elections, levy taxes, and function independently from other government bodies. Their function is basically unchanged even today. As such, they are the oldest democratic institutions in the country. The necessary cooperation among all ranks to maintain polder integrity gave its name to the Dutch version of third-way politics —the Polder Model . The 1953 flood disaster prompted
3685-859: The polders into an inaccessible swamp, which allowed the Allied armies to stop the German army . The Netherlands has a large area of polders: as much as 20% of the land area has at some point in the past been reclaimed from the sea, thus contributing to the development of the country. IJsselmeer is the most famous polder project of the Netherlands. Some other countries which have polders are Bangladesh , Belgium , Canada and China . Some examples of Dutch polder projects are Beemster , Schermer , Flevopolder and Noordoostpolder . The Dutch word polder derives successively from Middle Dutch polre , from Old Dutch polra , and ultimately from pol- ,
3752-528: The renovation of a house on the mount, the Logis Saint-Abraham, which is used as a guest house for pilgrims on retreat. The Mont-Saint-Michel has long "belonged" to some families who shared the businesses in the town and ran the village administration. Tourism is almost the sole source of income of the commune, bringing US$ 63 million to the small island in 2014. There are about 50 shops for three million tourists. About 25 people sleep every night on
3819-519: The same routes. Ten hiking trails have been created that enable pilgrims from various European countries to retrace the path their ancestors may have taken during a medieval pilgrimage. Part of the action in Helen MacInnes 's 1943 film thriller Assignment in Brittany takes place at the Mont, including a dramatic nighttime chase across the sands. In Peter Jackson 's 2003 film The Lord of
3886-410: The sea" by medieval pilgrims making their way across the flats, the mount can still pose dangers for visitors who avoid the causeway and attempt the hazardous walk across the sands from the neighbouring coast. Polderisation and occasional flooding have created salt marsh meadows that were found to be ideally suited to grazing sheep . The well-flavoured meat that results from the diet of the sheep in
3953-546: The southern part of the Italian Peninsula , where it may have left a few words in the Sicilian language . See: Norman and French influence on Sicilian . Literature in Norman ranges from early Anglo-Norman literature through the 19th-century Norman literary renaissance to modern writers ( see list of Norman-language writers ). As of 2017 , the Norman language remains strongest in the less accessible areas of
4020-569: The structure; the muskrat is known for this activity and hunted in certain European countries because of it. Polders are most commonly, though not exclusively, found in river deltas, former fenlands , and coastal areas. Flooding of polders has also been used as a military tactic in the past. One example is the flooding of the polders along the Yser River during World War I . Opening the sluices at high tide and closing them at low tide turned
4087-465: The supportive upward structure that can be seen today. Today Mont-Saint-Michel is seen as a building of Romanesque architecture. Robert de Thorigny, a great supporter of Henry II of England , who was also Duke of Normandy , reinforced the structure of the buildings and built the main façade of the church in the 12th century. In 1204, Guy of Thouars , regent for the Duchess of Brittany , as vassal of
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#17327912421384154-543: The surrounding water level some or all of the time. Water enters the low-lying polder through infiltration and water pressure of groundwater , or rainfall, or transport of water by rivers and canals. This usually means that the polder has an excess of water, which is pumped out or drained by opening sluices at low tide . Care must be taken not to set the internal water level too low. Polder land made up of peat (former marshland) will sink in relation to its previous level, because of peat decomposing when exposed to oxygen from
4221-594: The world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands". The Dutch have a long history of reclamation of marshes and fenland, resulting in some 3,000 polders nationwide. By 1961, about half of the country's land, 18,000 square kilometres (6,800 sq mi), was reclaimed from the sea. About half the total surface area of polders in northwest Europe is in the Netherlands. The first embankments in Europe were constructed in Roman times. The first polders were constructed in
4288-500: Was closed in 1863. In 1872 French architect of historic monuments Édouard Corroyer was responsible for assessing the condition of Mont-Saint-Michel. It took him about two years to convince his minister to classify it as a historic monument, and it was officially declared as such in 1874. From then on Corroyer, a member of the Academy of Fine Arts , devoted fifteen years of his life to the restoration of " la Merveille ". Under his direction, gigantic works were undertaken, starting with
4355-414: Was completely submerged on 21 March 2015 by the highest sea level, a once-in-18-years occurrence, as crowds gathered to snap photos. Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in the 8th century, the island was called Mont Tombe (Latin: tumba ). According to a legend, the archangel Michael appeared in 708 to Aubert of Avranches , the bishop of Avranches , and instructed him to build
4422-514: Was the Norman counterpart of St Michael's Mount in Cornwall , UK , which was given to the Benedictines , the religious order of Mont-Saint-Michel, by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century. The two mounts share the same tidal island characteristics and a similar conical shape, though Mont-Saint-Michel is much taller. During the medieval period, pilgrims walked from Italy, Germany and England, as well as other parts of France. Such devotees were known as Miquelots. Modern pilgrims can follow
4489-469: Was under French control) twice. The first siege started in 1423, and was lifted the next year. In 1433, an English force equipped with wrought-iron bombards and under the command of Thomas Scales, 7th Baron Scales again besieged the island. It was likewise lifted the next year. Scales's men abandoned two bombards they had used during the siege on 17 June 1434; they were recovered by the French and are currently on display. When Louis XI of France founded
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