The Coolidge examiner., 1937-03-25

of stacked griddles" such as old
Adirondack guides can cook. The
way buckWheat is used in Norman
dy is to make of it a sort of bread,
soggy, putty y-colored.
The call of Mont st. Michel is a
call to the heart. You may go
hither and yon through France, see
ing castles and monuments, flow
cred lanes and bewitching rivers,
but always is felt the tug toward
Mont St. Michel, often called, less
formally, 1.-The Mount or "the
Rock"
Unresisting, you at last find your
self straight down the coast from
Cherbourg at the little town Of Av-
ranches, from which the happy pill
grim gets his first glimpse of the
Mount.
Avranches is set on a sudden hill,
and to reach its gems of interest
the road sweeps upward on the
sleeps. In so doing it passes a
library. That seems prosaic un-
til into ones mind flashes the
remembrance that it is here that
great treasures of the Mount have
found safe harbor after disturbing
conflicts. Here are parchments writ
ten in the twelve hundreds.
Here, too, is the work of the monk,
Abelard, whose love for Heloise is
even better remembered than his
treatise, 'Sic ct Non"-such is the
delight one takes in romance.
Up the hill is the Plate-forme, a
name which sounds dull enough un-
til, as one stops to survey it, its
history comes back from some
pigeonhole of the mind. What an
astounding chapter of history it
commentaries, this simple stone
platform ringed about with chains!
It is all that is left of the great
cathedral which was taken down in
1899 as it began to collapse.
This spot, the Plate-forme, was
just before the cathedral door, and
it was here in 1172 that the King
of England, Henry II, knelt before
the prelateS and emissaries of the
pope to atone for the murder of
Thomas a Beckett in Canterbury
Cathedral. The king, having been
communicated, was not allowed
to PROSTATE himself before the gor-
geous company from the Vatican
within the building, but had to re-
main outside until their absolution
was given him; and on his royal
knees, which ached miserably.
The Sands of Mont st. Michel.
The time to see Mont ST. Michel
is at any time when you find your
self near If a chance to see it is
given, even if it be midnight or
winter, the sight should not be
missed. But if a choice of times
can be made, then the time of high
tides is that time. And if there
is a moon, and one can spend the
night on the Rock, then sightsee-
ing has reached it's ultimate.
From Avranches the view re-
solves itself into map of the Bay
of Mont St. Michel and that great
space of sand from which the tide
recedes. For % miles, from Av-
ranches to Cancale on the Brittany
side, extend these tidal sands; and
ir the middle of all this fiatnesS,
as if floating in the sky like mi
rage, rises the granite rock of Mont
St. Michel. Two hundred and fifty
feet it towers, and man-made struc-
lures have increased its height to
498 feet.
The curious and seeking observ-
er can also note from afar tie three
distinct tiers on the Rock. First
above the waters are the ramparts,
splendid in their medieval strength;
next, the band of clustered houses,
"clinging like limpets to a rock"
and then the buttressed Merveille
and the crown of towers and tur-
rets resting on that marvel of ma
sonry.
And just as the Rock has three
tiers of architectural interest, the
three tiers represent three purposes
fortress, prison, and abbey.
Pontorson, lying on the little river
Couesnon, is the place of departure
for the Mount. There one would
take to the sea, were it not for the
causeway of approach, built across
sand and water.
In olden times-it can be done
now if the traveller likes risk Of
wetting-the only way to reach the
Rock was to walk or ride across the
exposed wet sand. Even kings and
bishops came that way, risking
tides and quicksands. Fancy Louis
XI Snatching up his long gray robes
and picking his way among the salt
puddles!
After centuries of wet feet and
foundering horses, energy was ex-
pended to bank high a causeway
and on this to run a little train
from Pontorson. And now motor
cars by hundreds and even air
planes alight like butterflies on the
sands by the ramparts.