Day Trip To Mont Saint Michel From Paris in Winter, France

A day trip to Mont Saint Michel from Paris is an amazing idea!

“Le Mont Saint-Michel” is one of those destinations you can easily access from Paris for a day trip or a weekend, and yet it is still a total change of scenery and a great way to escape the city for a bit.
Also, Saint Michel has some pretty unique features you wouldn’t find in any other place in France. This makes it an excellent place for anyone who likes taking pictures of scenery, nature, and birds or even shooting a lookbook if you’re into Instagram photos! 

It’s also fascinating to see how the islet life was functioning. It’s the perfect culture trip for a solo traveller, lovers or family. So don’t hesitate to visit Mont Saint Michel in winter; it’s a great getaway. This guide lets you know the best things to do on a day trip to Mont Saint Michel from Paris!

The Mont Saint-Michel and the surrounding bay have been on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre list since 1979. Here is a little snippet of history from the UNESCO website to give you a brief history and an idea of what to expect.

❝Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the ‘Wonder of the West’, a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site.❞

Pretty incredible, right? I think Mont-Saint Michel is one of the places that fascinated me the most as a kid and still does nowadays because of the nature surrounding it and how well-conceived the whole islet is.

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It’s pretty easy to plan a day trip to Mont Saint Michel from Paris; however, if you don’t feel like organising the whole day trip by yourself, you can take the pressure off your shoulders and buy a tour day trip.

There are many choices, from a fully guided day trip to some tasting or transportation only. You can see it all on this Mont Saint Michel Day Trip Tour List.

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Check out the 25 Best Day Trips From Paris By Train!

Day Trip To Mont Saint Michel From Paris in Winter, France

Once you reach the site, you must leave your car in one of the parking lots indicated to you with arrows.
As updated in July 2018, the prices of the parking are the following:

It is 6,50€ if you stay less than two hours. If you visit for more than two hours and a half, it then passes to twenty-four hours forfeited from the time of your arrival for 12€. An evening offer also exists for anyone arriving after 19h (7 p.m.) and exiting before 11h (11 a.m.) the following day. It is 4,40€.

You have to leave your car behind before the islet. You cannot access anywhere after the bridge with your automobile due to environmental protection ongoing onto this natural site to avoid more unnecessary pollution closer to the site. Any vehicle there would ruin the landscape and the experience. Besides, it’s not like you can drive and have plenty of other options to access the islet.

But you still have three choices to access the islet :

1.  A 45-minute walk: You can enjoy a nice walk along the bay and enjoy nature, birds and fresh air.
2. Free Shuttle “Le Passeur”: If you don’t want to walk or it is too cold for a 45-minute walk like this happened to us, there are two motorised free shuttles that drop the visitors 350m away from the entrance in 12 minutes.  They are continually operating from 7h30 to 00h.
3. Hippomobile” la Maringote”: The Hippomobile is a horse-drawn carriage that is more authentic to reach the islet in 25 minutes. Though they aren’t operating during winter, they will run again in April. I couldn’t find the exact price, but they’re not free.

The scenery on your way to the islet of Mont Saint-Michel is incredible, so if it had been a bit less cold (and we were less lazy, let’s no lie), I would have loved to walk the 45 minutes to get there.

It must be excellent in early spring when nature starts to bloom again.

Best Things To Do In Mont Saint Michel In One Day

I went to Mont Saint Michel in December, an off-peak season, to visit the historical islet.

As I mentioned, here are the best things to do during your day trip to Mont Saint Michel to learn more about this fantastic destination.

The answer is pretty simple: everything, pretty much everything on the islet, has a story to tell.

The fact that it is an islet is one of the big pluses of this islet; it isn’t significant. During a day trip, you can efficiently see most of the island or everything you want.
Therefore you can efficiently manage to visit the whole lot of it. Wandering through the tiny alley to make your way to the top to see the abbey is a bit like stepping back in time if it wasn’t for the few shops and restaurants you can find at the bottom of the islet.

Walking the alley leads you to the top of the islet, to the abbey dedicated to the archangel St-Michel, hence the name.

Visit Saint Michel Abbey

Buy Abbey tickets to skip the queue

And if you’re a European citizen under 26 years old, admission is free on presentation of an ID/Passport.

One of the best things about visiting it in winter is that you don’t have to wait long to get in. It’s WAY less crowded than in the summer.

There are still some visitors, obviously, but it still feels very “free” to move around without bumping into other visitors every 2m and taking the time you need to explore the abbey.

Also, the view over the bay is astonishing; the tide was low during our visit, making some pretty patterns. It feels like there’s nothing else on the horizon, and it’s just you and nature when you look over; you can glimpse what it would have been like to live up there back in the day.

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The best things to do on the islet of Mont Saint-Michel in winter:

• Walking around the bay to enjoy the view of the islet and the surrounding nature. It’s perfect for getting some pretty shots, also.
• La Porte Du Roy and Porte du Boulevard entrances to the fortified islet.
• Medieval fortifications of Mont Saint-Michel are the old-school way to protect the islet from potential invaders back in the day; you can walk along with them and enjoy the astonishing view over the bay.
• La Grande Rue is the main street of the islet, where shops offer local food such as biscuits, cider, and souvenirs.
• The several towers. Such as the North Tower, the Gabriel Tower, the Arcade Tower and so on…
• Saint-Michel Abbey is, of course, the main attraction of the islet.

You can also find some museums, four in total in Mt Saint-Michel, to discover more about the islet’s history and its tedious construction as a monument dedicated to the glory of God. (Musée de la Mer et de l’écologie, Musée Historique, Le Logis Tiphaine, Demeure de Bertrand Duguesclin (a knight from the islet) and l’Archéoscope) You can get a pass to visit them all to save money for 18€.

I took a quick snapshot inside and outside of the abbey. The abbey is still working, and offices & mass for those who would like to assist.

As you can see above, the streets on the islet are very narrow, and while it adds a peculiar charm, it also makes it seem crowded as soon as a few people walk around.

You can find many souvenir shops (pretty expensive, though), hotels, restaurants, Crêperies, and good bottles of cider. Those make pretty good souvenirs if you’re unsure what to bring from your day trip to Mont Saint Michel.

Some are viewed directly on the bay, which I think would be pretty sweet for a meal if you’re not on a tight budget.

One of the cons of visiting the place in winter is that you can’t enjoy walking along the bay barefoot with a guide. The water level can rise quickly, and some areas are quicksand, so it’s better to walk with a guide if you brave the cold anyway!

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If you’d like to spend more than one day in Mt. St-Michel, check out the accommodations over at Booking.com

Have you ever been to Mt St-Michel? If yes, what did you think about it? Let me know in the comments!

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Looking for more travel-related France content? Then check out those posts for travel inspiration:

• Best Things To Do In Angouleme
• Week-End In Honfleur: Best Things To Do | Normandy
• Day Trip To Lille From Paris
• Best Free Things To Do In Paris, France
• Best Things To Do In Colmar In One Day: Fairy Tale French Town
• Fairy Tale Village in France; Visit Eguisheim
• Best Things To Do In Troyes, France
• Vannes Travel Guide, Brittany
• 10+ Christmas Markets in France

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IF YOU LIKE ME, PIN MY MONT SAINT MICHEL WINTER GUIDE!
Day Trip To Mont Saint-Michel From Paris in Winter, France

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✈ Best Travel Ressources To Plan Your Next Trip

✈ How To Find Flights?

– Skyscanner; it is a good comparator for finding the cheapest flights.
– Google Flights is also a good help when comparing flights.

✈ Where To Book Accommodations?

– Booking.com: plenty of options and ways to get discounts the more you book.

✈ Best Sites To Book Activities

– GetYourGuide when I can’t get a ticket directly on the website or if it’s easier to go through them.
– Klook if you need to book more than just activities and would like to get everything from the same website or different day trips—(i.e. transport cards, car rental, hotel…).

✈ Other helpful travel resources

– Radical Storage: If you need a place to keep your luggage for an extended period when you travel, I recommend using them.
– TheTrainline: If you love to travel by train like me, then TheTrainline needs to be your go-to website for train travel in Europe.

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Disclaimer: This resources box contains affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you book anything through my links at no additional cost. These links help me support the blog and generate more content. Happy travels!

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