The Bay of Mont Saint-Michel
A unique ecosystem
Discover the hidden secrets and treasures of the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel.
The Normandy side of Mont Saint-Michel Bay
You'll find scallops and whelks in the port of Granville, and further offshore, lobsters from the Chausey Islands, the catching of which is strictly regulated and reserved for a handful of local fishermen. The Bay of Mont Saint-Michel in Brittany
On the other side of the bay, the Breton port of Cancale specializes in oyster farming, while much of the coastline is lined with the wooden pilings characteristic of bouchot mussel cultivation. The bay's last foot fishermen gather cockles and track shrimp with their heavy havenets, which they tirelessly push in front of them. Further offshore, fleets of small fishing boats catch sea bass, mackerel, sole, plaice and turbot, and bring up from the seabed their traps laden with edible crab and spider crab. Finally, a few insiders fish for salmon in the Sée and Sélune rivers, a species so abundant in the past that local farm workers and the journeymen who built the Mont Saint-Michel specified in their work contracts that they would not be served salmon more than three times a week! When the bay "counts" the sheep... Mont Saint-Michel wakes up! Salt meadows are a characteristic feature of the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel, between land and sea, where specific vegetation growing on the shores is regularly covered by the sea. Since the Middle Ages, sheep farming has developed in this area. The grévins, or bay sheep, spend much of their lives grazing on the salt meadows, a diet that gives their flesh an unrivalled taste. It's around Easter that the first lambs can be tasted, contributing to the gastronomic renown of the Mont Saint-Michel Bay. Polders and farm landscapes Polders are another characteristic landscape of the bay. It was in the 19th century that polders - land taken from the sea by the construction of protective dykes - were developed in the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel. This highly fertile land is particularly well-suited to the cultivation of vegetables: sweet-tasting carrots, small new potatoes, crisp, tender salads and pink shallots, a crop very specific to the bay. At the edge of the polders, the farm landscapes of Normandy and Brittany reclaim their rights: this is the realm of grain-fed chickens, ducks raised for their foie gras, farm pigs, Norman and Breton cows, eggs, milk, butter, cream... There are also apple and pear orchards, and cider, perry and sometimes Calvados production, as in the good old days when stills wandered from farm to farm, distilling the few liters of alcohol that warmed bodies during the long winter evenings.
