Friday 18 September 2009

Summer snow on Mont St Michel


It marks the border between Normandy and Brittany, and is one of France's most popular tourist attractions. There's been a monastery here since the eighth century, it inspired St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, and (at least when not too crowded) it remains an extraordinary and atmospheric place. Mont St Michel is pretty special.

However, it's always been a place of pilgrimage too - and pilgrims, whether of the religious or tourist variety, want souvenirs. The road up to the abbey has been lined with sellers throughout its history, but over the past millennium tastes have kept changing. Today, as newspaper Ouest France recently revealed, the most popular souvenir in the Mont's shops isn't a local speciality. It's the plastic snow globe.

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