Curious Traveler

- There is an historic site in France that sometimes you can walk to, but sometimes you have to swim to.

It was built by a bishop in honor of a saint, and it is one of the most popular UNESCO sites in all of Europe.

Can you guess where we are today?

(upbeat music begins) (upbeat music continues) "Curious Traveler" is made possible by the following.

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(intense music begins) (water rushes) (intense music continues) (intense music begins) (upbeat music begins) - [Christine] Bonjour, "Curious Travelers," today we are taking you to the historic regions of Brittany and Normandy in France.

(upbeat music continues) Our first stop is to the magical UNESCO site of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.

Then we will visit Rennes, the capital of Brittany, and we will explore its more than 2000 year old history.

(upbeat music continues) So here's what I'm curious about In Mont Saint-Michel and Rennes, France.

Who saw a vision of an angel telling him to build this Abbey?

What are all these people doing?

(arrow dings) Where can you find 370 beautifully preserved fairytale houses?

Why was a neoclassical city built on top of a Gallo-Roman city?

When did French townspeople know to walk under these overhangs?

And how does a French king connect to this weird and wonderful amusement park ride?

Who, what, where, why, when, and how?

So much to be curious about in Mont Saint-Michel and Rennes.

(upbeat music continues) We begin our curious journey along the host of Normandy to visit one of France's most iconic monuments.

It's a magical place made up of a nearly perfectly circular island with fairytale medieval walls, and towers, and a lively village all clinging to the sides of that mountain with a fanciful abbey seeming to float at its peak.

It is also legendary for being rather tricky to get to, but nonetheless, it has attracted millions of visitors since the Middle Ages.

(upbeat music continues) This, of course, is the magical Mont Saint-Michel, a UNESCO World heritage site, which attracts thousands of visitors from around the world each and every year.

But did you know that this island began its history under a different name?

It wasn't until the eighth century, when a local bishop saw a vision of the Archangel Michael hovering above the island and pointing to the top and told that Bishop to build a church there in his honor.

So that's exactly what the bishop did.

Over the following centuries, throughout the Middle ages, thousands and thousands of pilgrims made their way here to ask for help from St.

Michael.

And how did they get here?

Well, of course, over this huge body of water.

Wait, where's the water?

(gentle music continues) We'll get to that missing water in a minute.

First, let's make our way up to the island and to the Abbey to learn more about how Mont Saint-Michel came to be.

This is the bishop who had that vision.

In this relief, you can see how the Archangel Michael is pointing at the top of the island, instructing the bishop to build his church.

But what about Michael's other hand?

If you look closely, you can see that he's touching the bishop's head.

Now, according to legend, the bishop ignored the angel twice.

So the third time the angel burned a hole in the bishop's head to get his attention.

Well, that's one way to get your point across.

In fact, the bishop's skull with a hole in it is preserved in his tomb.

So back to the story, the bishop eventually does build a small sanctuary on top of the island, and then, as the saying goes, if you build it, they will come.

And the pilgrims came and came and came, millions since the Middle Ages.

And then this village developed at the base of the mountain for all those travelers, with lovely winding cobbled paths leading up to that abbey at the top.

(upbeat music continues) Okay, today, maybe it's not so lovely, when it is cold and windy and full of tourist shops, but there's still a feel of that sacred history here.

Plus a pilgrimage is meant to be challenging, of course.

And these steep 350 steps to the top certainly are, but this part of the journey is nothing compared to this part, where pilgrims walk on water to get here.

Sort of.

Right now, I'm standing in one of the towers of Mont Saint-Michel's Island.

But if it's an island, where is all the water?

Well, this is just one of the many things that makes Mont Saint-Michel so magical.

So if you look here, you can see all the way over to the shore.

We are obviously at low tide.

That's right, the waters recede so much that you could actually walk across.

And if you look really closely, you can see a couple little dots here off in the distance.

Those are not ants.

Those are people.

So yes, people are actually walking across the bay here at low tide, but once that high tide hits, you better have a boat or be a very good swimmer, because everything you see here actually fills with water.

(upbeat music begins) This is a dramatic view of what that dramatic tide difference looks like here at the island.

Now, to be clear, this does not happen every day, but for 15 or even 20 days a year, yes, you could experience the highest tides in continental Europe, which quickly turns a landlocked mountain into an island with an abbey that seems to float at the top.

The speed with which the bay fills up has been described as the speed of a galloping horse.

So you'd better be quick or you better have a boat.

Oh, and there's one more challenge to this journey.

The dry bay was notorious for having quicksand.

Yes, quicksand.

Don't believe me?

It's documented here on none other than the Bayou tapestry.

(upbeat music continues) But after all that, if, I mean, when, you finally make it to the top, you will be rewarded by the magical Mont Saint-Michel Abbey.

(choral music continues) The church was built in stages, beginning in the year 966 by the Dukes of Normandy, and later the kings of France continued to develop and add-on to the now three story building, all to create the fairytale castle looking Romanesque and Gothic Benedictine Abbey.

We are, yes, we're filming professionally, but we're also first time visitors.

And there's like, just a sense of magic.

- It's indefinable.

You don't know.

Sometimes the place take you, and you know, it's just happened.

You can't put word on it.

- [Christine] And part of that magic, of course, comes from the story of why the Abbey was built, but also it comes from how the Abbey has been sustained all these centuries later, thanks to those pilgrims who believe they feel the presence of the Archangel Michael here.

And, throughout the Middle Ages at least, this particular archangel performed a very important service to those believers.

- They came here because in Middle Ages there were something which was very important, the fear that all people in middle ages want to know if your soul will go to hell or to heaven.

- Right?

- Okay, and Michael, we all know him, he is the one who chased away Adam Eve from The Garden of Eden.

He's the one who talked to Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years War.

But what today people have a tendency to ignore is that he has another role.

- What role is that?

That's the interesting part.

- Yeah, it's the most important one.

Here he is in charge to process to the weighing of the souls of the dead people.

And so on each plate of the scale, you will put good deeds and getting bad deeds.

If you've done more good ones than bad ones, it's okay, can get to heaven, no problem.

Let's go, no problem.

- But the other way.

- At the other way, stop.

You will not go further on the way, impossible.

And so they came here by hundreds, by thousands, by millions during whole middle ages to seek the protection of the archangel.

- [Christine] And those many, many pilgrims are the reason why the abbey we're standing in today is so huge and so majestic.

The original sanctuary was simply too small to accommodate everyone.

So some incredibly ingenious 11th century engineers accomplished quite the balancing act.

They built four smaller chapels, or crypts, around the tip of the mountaintop, and then they built the large abbey on top of that, making the overall height even higher than the original mountain.

And later, on the very top, a statue of St.

Michael was added to be seen by pilgrims from afar, especially those who traveled for weeks and miles, only to be stopped by those famous tides.

No matter if that pilgrim was a commoner or a king.

And the pilgrimage to come to this specific Abbey or church is very different than other ones because of the tides.

So when the pilgrims came, and if it was high tide, what did they do?

- They need to wait.

- They just wait.

They would have to wait, okay.

- They come by feet, that's all.

- Yeah.

- They were crossing the bay, arriving here by feet, and even the kings, the King of France, when they came here, crossed, sure on horses also, but they were walking anyway.

The boat, no.

- Because that doesn't count.

That doesn't count.

- Yeah, probably.

I dunno, I'd never tried that this time.

But like, yeah, probably, no.

(gentle music begins) - [Christine] But eventually all that suffering was worth it because the story of Saint Michael and the beauty of the architecture of the Abbey envelops you.

Of the many special areas in the monastery, one is considered so beautiful, it is known as the Marveille, or Marvel.

It is this three story building we're standing on now, perched on top of a mountain, of course, all crowned by this beautiful cloister.

(gentle music continues) Over the centuries, the abbey survived The Hundred Years War, becoming a prison during the French Revolution, and was occupied by the Germans during World War II.

But somehow the beauty, the magic still draws the millions of pilgrims and tourists who continue to come and marvel at this world heritage site, all because of one man's dream.

And the views from up here aren't bad either.

(gentle music continues) Oh, as we make our way back down the mountain, here's one last thing.

If you have become as entranced as I have at this magical little island, and are dreaming about living here, well, you should know that only about 10 private homes still exist here, with a population of about 25 people.

Maybe an archangel will visit you in your dreams and you can create your own magical island complete with your own fairytale castle, but hopefully the tides won't be such a problem for you.

And maybe you won't have to suffer a hole in the head in the process.

(upbeat music continues) Next, let's visit one of those stops along the pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel.

It's our second destination, just 40 miles to the South, Rennes, the capital of Brittany.

Rennes began as a Gallo-Roman fortress, and some of those ancient foundations can still be found in the city today.

In the Middle Ages, Rennes duked it out with the neighboring city of Nantes over which Dukes had the most power in Brittany.

And today, Rennes is known as the perfect place to stay while visiting the magical UNESCO site of Mont Saint-Michel.

(upbeat music begins) So let's explore Rennes' ancient, medieval, and modern history.

It's ancient history gives us its name.

Rennes comes from that original founding Celtic tribe, the Riedones.

When the Romans ruled here, they built mighty walls, some of which you can still see today.

And they also built an ancient Roman gate within those walls.

Here it is, doesn't it look ancient?

Well, no, because this version was built in the 15th century as the royal gate used in the ceremonies of future Dukes and Duchess of Brittany.

Part of the ceremony demanded that the gate be closed and then would only be opened after the Duke or Duchess swore their allegiance to the people of Brittany.

After that, the procession would go through the gate and continue into the city, with its first stop here at Rennes Cathedral, where the ceremony would continue.

In fact, Anne of Brittany, the future queen of France, was invested here at Rennes Cathedral.

(upbeat music continues) Rennes Cathedral dates back to at least the 12th century.

It was an important stop along the pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel, and other beautiful churches and convents were established in the city during this time, including Our Lady of Good News Basilica and the historic peaceful Jacobin Convent.

(upbeat music continues) This brings us to the modern era when Rennes battled for the title of capital of Brittany with Nantes.

It was finally settled when the parliament of Brittany was created here in Rennes in 1551.

But then tragedy struck with the great fire of 1720, which destroyed nearly 40% of the city, and 33 of its streets.

But the silver lining of that tragedy is that the city was rebuilt in a more fireproof material, all this beautiful stone.

And it was redesigned in this beautiful neoclassical style, with heritage buildings like these private mansions, the Rennes Opera House, and the Hotel Deville, or City Hall.

And in between the Opera House and the city hall is an example of the other beautiful result of that tragic fire, new wide open cobbled plazas like this one, Place de la Mairie, considered the heart of the city and a popular meeting point.

(gentle music continues) But before the medieval wooden city was burnt down, Rennes looked a whole lot more like this, the setting for a Disney movie, with these gorgeous half timber houses.

There's very few places left that have such a high concentration of these gorgeous half timber houses.

There's something so romantic about them.

I know that maybe in the past it was poor people, rich people, lots of different types.

But for us it's the epitome of a fairytale.

These treasures of times gone by were very lucky to be spared from that great fire.

In fact, Rennes has more than 300 of these, the highest number of half timber houses in all of Brittany.

And there's a curious little trick to tell how old each building is.

- The way you can determine the age of a house, so this is not a perfect science, but usually it's through the shape.

- Okay.

- So generally if a house is very flat, it is 17th century.

- Ah, I know that.

- And if there is an overhang, generally the wider the overhang, or the more it leans forward, the older the house will be.

So here we have two examples.

We have three examples, but side by side we have the oldest house of the street, so the blue one on the end, that is a 15th century house and a 17th century house.

So it's good we have the two side by side for comparison.

That's how you kind of determine the age.

- [Christine] And there's another fun little trick to look for.

It explains why these houses in Alsace look different than those here in Rennes.

For these half timber houses, different regions have different patterns.

- Yes.

- So I know a lot of 'em just kind of have this straight up and down.

But here there's a specific one.

- There's one that you will see a bit more commonly in Rhodanien, is what we will call the kind of fishbone disposition.

So this is a rough translation.

So, for example, on the house just behind you, that's kind of angled, kind of looks a bit like a Christmas tree as well.

That is quite typical for the region.

You also have a lot of the kind of diamond crisscross.

Straightforward as well.

And what we call as well (Madeleine speaks French) So on the blue house on the end, it's just the very even crosses, it's the Saint Andrew Cross.

- St Andrew Cross.

- St.

Andrew Cross, yes.

- In Scotland.

- St.

Andrew Cross.

- Oh wow.

- We have that quite a lot as well.

But this fishbone disposition, it's quite common in Rhodanien.

- [Christine] And the overall shape of the houses has an important history too.

The buildings are almost always narrow, because the smaller the footprint, the lower the taxes were.

So a sneaky little trick was often done.

The top floor would stick out into the street a little wider than the ground floor, because the top floor didn't count as taxable.

And these top floors also provided protection from the rain for pedestrians below.

But that's not the only very important function these wide top floors served.

That other function had something to do with, let's just say, hygiene.

- The other more well known reason is that before there were toilets and flushable plumbing, generally the contents of a chamber pots would be thrown outta the window.

And so if your house leans forward, there is a better chance that the waste will fall towards the center of the street, and so the paths would become intenible.

And so there is an expression in French when we say (Madeleine speaks French) which means to be in (beeps), to be walking in (beeps) (beeps) (Christine laughs) - What's the expression again?

(Madeleine speaks French) - Okay.

(Madeleine speaks French).

- I mean (beeps), basically.

- I love it.

- And so if you wanted to keep to keep your shoes clean, you needed to try and walk as close as possible to the houses so that you would have the protection of the wood above you.

- Oh my gosh.

- And so the center of the street was the dirtiest side.

And so the (Madeleine speaks French), so both extremities, was the cleanest side.

- Under the nice protective overhang.

- Yes.

- I love that story, I never knew that.

I never knew that.

So the moral of the story here amongst the fairytale houses is stay on the sidewalk, enjoy the shade provided by those sneaky top floors, and keep your shiny shoes free of (Christine clears her throat) the mess in the middle.

Otherwise you'll be in deep trouble.

(upbeat music continues) Next, remember those beautiful wide open plazas created after the great fire of 1720?

Well, as we've learned, these lovely, elegant, neoclassical squares became the meeting points of the city.

And over the years, something else lovely and elegant popped up in these squares.

And it was something quite French and quite curious.

The classic carousel.

(upbeat music continues) The classic French carousel has its origins in 17th century France, has a connection to Louis the 14th, and actually had a military purpose to it at first, if you can believe it.

The word carousel comes from the Latin, and later French words for chariot or tilting match, for those knight who like to practice stabbing each other on horseback.

Eventually the jouster would try to spear a dangling ring instead of each other on a wooden circular device, originally on real horses, and later replaced by wooden horses.

In fact, a carousel jousting tournament held for Louis the 14th's amusement in 1662 led to the naming of the famous Place de Carousel in front of the Louvre in Paris.

Sadly, the carnival and the carousel fell out of favor to more modern amusements over the years.

But fortunately here in Rennes, two brothers decided to preserve this beautiful piece of French history.

(gentle music continues) This is Le Grand Huit, which means big eight, named for the loop de loop figure eight formed in a classic roller coaster.

And it is one of the few places in the world dedicated to repairing vintage amusement rides, like this 1830s carousel.

There's something really unique about this particular carousel, 'cause it wasn't run by an operator or mechanics.

What ran this carousel?

- It was an actual horse that was in the middle of the carousel.

So this one is like our oldest piece in the whole building.

- That's incredible.

- And so the horse was trained to do like exactly four minutes turns.

It was not going very fast, but at the time it was very fun for the people to discover that.

And people were seated on fake horses.

- [Christine] That's incredible.

The repair shop then expanded into an amusement park and event space.

This is one of the cafe tables set inside two different carousels fused into one.

What I find fascinating is your artists here do such a great job of combining different pieces, because this lower level didn't originally belong to the upper level.

- So the top part was from a very renowned showman family.

And they had its stored for a while, and they thought about the Mascre family, like maybe you could display it for us to to keep the tradition going.

- Finally gets to have a second life.

- Yeah, sure, because now they get easily forgotten.

- Yeah, yeah.

So no carnival is complete without some amazing organ music.

And we have a beautiful one over there, and I'm too comfy, so I'm not gonna get up.

But if we can kind of just look over here, we talk about a work of art, that is a work of art.

- Sure, so that one is called (Lila speaks French), we cannot put it on because it's extremely loud.

So people like from three or four kilometers away could hear the music and know, "Oh, there's a fair somewhere, we have to go there."

(upbeat music begins) - [Christine] Even when it's not playing that iconic carnival music, the artistry and attention to detail here can be appreciated.

Just look at those little figurines, elegantly dressed in their best knickers and stockings, of course with some lovely ladies and their purple parasols, and a pair of singing clowns to complete the quirky carnival look.

And throughout history, carousels, carnival rides, and amusements all served an important function, to cheer up both the young and the young at heart.

A wonderful distraction or escape, especially during tough times.

In fact, there's one more curious amusement park game that specifically combines both that bit of levity with a surprising dose of reality.

This might look familiar at first, but when you look closely, you will see that this "Wheel of Fortune"/ "Showcase Showdown" big wheel has a little twist to it.

- So this was displayed post-war where people were obviously very hungry.

- Right?

- So when they spin the the wheel, they could win some sugar, coffee, wine.

Now we win some presents or stuffed animals, but back in the days, they could win some stuff really useful for their everyday life.

- [Christine] And then from those humble beginnings to times of abundance, simple carnival wheels like this one went on to inspire something you might recognize.

And now that we're this close to it, and again I won't touch it, it really, "The Price is Right" copied this.

I mean, look, it's the exact same thing.

Or even the "Wheel of Fortune" or our modern day things.

That's fabulous.

(upbeat music begins) So, from the dream of one man, which led to a carefully balanced church to be built on top of a mountain, which is sitting on top of an island, which isn't always an island, which only the most dedicated of pilgrims would travel to, even if it involved navigating quicksand or rushing tide, to an ancient city and capital of a royal region of France, with equally religious roots, and an elegant city plan that rose from the ashes, which preserves its medieval past in storybook style, and its quirky carnival heritage through beautiful vintage works of art, with a curious connection to a French king, Mont Saint-Michel and Rennes have so much to be curious about.

Thank you for joining us on our educational journey, and hopefully now you're even more curious about the who, what, where, why, when, and how's of beautiful Rennes and Mont Saint-Michel.

As they say here, au revoir!

(upbeat music continues) Closed caption funding provided by.

- [Narrator] Eden Andalou Aquapark & Spa, an all inclusive luxury resort in Marrakech.

Moroccan inspired suites, authentic cuisine, all set in a desert oasis.

- [Christine] "Curious Traveler" is made possible by the following.

(wind whooshes) (dramatic music begins) (upbeat music begins) - [Narrator] You can immerse yourself in the very soul of Europe aboard a European Waterways luxury hotel barge cruise.

EuropeanWaterways.com.

(dramatic music begins) (water rushes) (dramatic music continues) (intense music begins) - [Christine] Still curious?

Go to curioustravelertv.com and find our links to follow us on social media.

(upbeat music continues) (pencils scratch) (upbeat chime swells)