After leaving Paris we drove towards the coast to visit Mont Saint-Michel.

This location was out of the way of the other places we really wanted to see but it was near the top of our must see locations in France.

And it was definitely worth the extra driving to see.

You can walk across the bridge and enjoy beautiful views of the island but it adds a lot of walking and the kids were already going to be walking a bunch and we wanted to save our steps for exploring. So we parked and took the shuttle out.

We loved walking around the island, It’s hard to wrap my head around that this was started in the 1500s

We got out to Mont Saint Michel on one of the first shuttles because we had heard that it gets busy fast.

Wandering around the ramparts and climbing up to the Abby was almost unbelievable. The kids loved it and so did we.

There are lots of uneven pavers and stairs so this is not a stroller friendly place. If your little ones aren’t able to walk at least a couple miles it would be best to use a hiking pack or baby carrier.

It’s amazing what was built out on this rocky island. It was beautiful and intricate. We toured the Abby but opted to do a self guided tour because we do better going at our own pace. One day we will have kids with attention spans that can handle a guided tour, but not yet.

After exploring the Abby we headed back down where we could grab lunch and enjoy the beautiful weather.

We were glad that we came early as it was very busy in the afternoon. We grabbed some gelato then took the shuttle back out to the parking area.

We spent the evening driving inland towards the Château de Chenonceau. Driving the French countryside was a big plus of planning our road trip.

I had high expectations of Mont Saint-Michel and it blew them out of the water. What an amazing historic place to visit. The kids loved it as well, getting to visit a “real life castle” was fun for them to explore.