The Gargoyles of Mont Saint Michel

To celebrate this week's book launch of my latest novel, Quicksand, set partly at Mont Saint Michel, here's a closer look at the weather-worn gargoyles of Mont Saint Michel. 

Mont Saint Michel is built on an island off the coast of Normandy. It has been a monastery, a scriptorium, and a prison. Because of its strategic location surrounded by dangerous tides and quicksand, it's been a relatively secure fortress during periods of history that were anything but secure.

The hilly island off the northern coast of France in Normandy was transformed into Mont Saint Michel after a local bishop had a dream in the year 708. Saint Michael appeared to the St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, in a dream, and asked him to build a monastery. Legend says that Aubert thought it nothing more than a dream until Saint Michael returned in another dream -- and this time burned a hole in the bishop’s skull with the touch of his finger.

Building on a rocky hill rising out of the ocean was difficult, and several miracles were attributed to making the seemingly-impossible construction a success. The island rises out of the fog and is surrounded by the ocean during high tide. Until a causeway was built, visitors had to wait until low tide to reach the Mont. And to this day, people die in the waters surrounding the Mont, either by getting caught unawares in the dangerous tides or stepping into quicksand that's deceptively the same color as solid sand....

Looking up at the gargoyles on the Abbey tour

Weather-worn gargoyles visible from the cloisters

The Abbey's spire, with Saint Michael on top and dozens of gargoyles below

  

And on the steep and winding main street leading up to the Abbey, you can guy your very own gargoyle

New York City Gargoyles, Part II: The Gargoyles and Grotesques of Gramercy Park

Shortly after returning home from a trip to New York last week, I posted a few quick photos of one of my favorite New York City gargoyles, a famous gargoyle in the Gramercy Park neighborhood (shown at left).

But there's much more to the neighborhood than that famous gargoyle. Stone carvers had a lot of fun in Gramercy Park, leaving the buildings covered with gorgeous carvings. Here are a some highlights below.

 

—Gigi

Bookshelf Gargoyles for a Rainy Weekend

It was a rainy weekend for the first time in ages. Perfect for curling up with a good book.

—Gigi

The Year in Gargoyles

Since it's the start of a new year, I thought I'd look back at 2011 through gargoyles. Even though I wasn't able to travel much last year, the year was still full of gargoyles. This post might help explain why I'm Gargoyle Girl.

Early in the year, we found a gargoyle to put on a tree stump in our backyard.

He watched over the construction of our new garden path. 

Friends baked me gargoyle cupcakes.

They had to make up the design of the cupcakes themselves!

Wonder where my fascination with gargoyles came from? Here's a photo of me visiting my parents in Oregon for my dad's birthday last year. 

When I was diagnosed with cancer last June (which is why the blog was on hiatus in July and August), my aunt sent me this gargoyle puppet.

While I was stuck in the house, I began taking lots of photographs at home, such as this one of gargoyles on my bookshelf.

My flying frog monster isn't technically a gargoyle, but since most sculptures we think of as gargoyles aren't technically gargoyles either, he's close enough. 

Stuffed-animal Dorian the Gargoyle is shown here with some books on art theft that I was using for research before National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November.

Several years ago I was given a set of gargoyle Christmas ornaments. I only put up a mini tree with mini ornaments this year, so I put the gargoyles underneath. 

It wasn't the easiest of years, but it ended well and I'm looking forward to the new year. I'll be traveling again by later on in the year, so I'll be posting a combination of old and new photos here. Have a Happy New Year!

—Gigi

Less Famous Gargoyles of Notre Dame

Continuing with mysterious views of Paris, here are some of the lesser known gargoyles of Notre Dame. (You can see some of the more famous carvings here and here.)

The gargoyles below can all be seen from the same bell tower level as the famous ones, nearly 400 steps up a worn stone spiral staircase.

--Gigi