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This is Le Mont Saint-Michel, a monastery in Normandy that's over 1,200 years old. The interior looks like something out of Game of Thrones.

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Though now connected to the mainland via erosion, this was once a part-time island roughly 600 meters off of the coast; during low tide it was accessible via land, but come high tide, you needed a boat. This unusual geographical feature had military appeal, making it the site of a modest stronghold in the 6th Century. But in the 8th Century ground was broken to build a monastery there instead, and it took nearly 200 years just to get this modest structure built on the highest point:

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By the 11th Century, the King of Normandy brought in Italian architect William de Volpiano to design an impressive Romanesque church, the construction of which took another century:

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Over the next few hundred years, the structure was further upgraded and expanded, initially for defensive purposes. (Mont Saint-Michel reportedly withstood a 30-year siege in the 14th Century.) Parts of the Romanesque church were subsequently torn down and replaced with Gothic-style structures. Sadly, by the 18th Century it no longer functioned as a place of worship and was instead converted into an island prison, like some French pre-Alcatraz.

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By the 20th Century the prison had shut down, monks had moved back in, and the structures were once again upgraded.

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Today erosion means that most of the time, Mont Saint-Michel is no longer an island, but connected to the mainland by both land and a manmade bridge.

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But Mother Nature's a bit fickle. Every 18 years the tide starts to recede…

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…and the site is once again transformed into an island fortress.

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Last Saturday was Zero Day, and as the waters around it shrank, Mont Saint-Michel was once again besieged…by tourists. 

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