Mont-Saint-Michel · Food

At the entrance to the village beside the bridge, serving the soufflé omelette it has been known for since the nineteenth century: beaten at length by hand and cooked over a wood fire in long-handled copper pans, in view of the room. It is expensive and people argue about whether it is worth it, but the cooking is done in the doorway and costs nothing to watch.

The single street climbing from the gate towards the abbey, lined end to end with crêperies, brasseries and souvenir shops. Prices reflect the fact that everyone walking past is a visitor with nowhere else to go; it is fine for a galette, and it is worth knowing that this is the whole of the island's dining.

Salt-marsh lamb, grazed on the tidal meadows around the bay and the one genuinely local thing on menus here. You will find it on both sides of the bay rather than only on the Mont, and it is priced as a speciality rather than as everyday meat.

Beauvoir and Pontorson, a few minutes south, have ordinary restaurants at ordinary prices and are where most people staying more than one night end up eating. If you are doing the Mont as a day trip, bringing food and eating it on the ramparts is both permitted and considerably cheaper.