Mont-Saint-Michel: choosing the date from a tide table
The tide decides whether the Mont is an island or a building on grey sand. Both are published years ahead, which makes this the one session nobody has to guess at.
This is the only place we photograph where the calendar matters less than a number published by the hydrographic service.
Two completely different subjects
High spring tide. The water comes right up to the causeway and the Mont is an island, reflected, with nothing around it. This is the photograph people have in mind.
Low tide. It stands on a plain of grey sand you can walk out onto, small in a very large space. Quieter, stranger, and arguably the better picture — but not the one anyone books expecting.
Neither is better. They are not interchangeable, and choosing between them is the first decision.
The coefficient
French tide tables publish a coefficient from 20 to 120. Above 100, the water surrounds the Mont completely. The highest tides follow the new and full moons by 36 to 48 hours, and the biggest of the year fall around the equinoxes in March and September.
Below about 70, the causeway view is water somewhere in the middle distance rather than around the walls.
All of this is published years ahead. Tell us which version you want and we pick the days in your window that give it.
The hour, once you have the day
Sunrise from the causeway, or the hour after sunset when the walls are lit and the sky still holds colour. In the middle of the day the Mont is backlit from the causeway side and full of people.
Walking out onto the sand
The bay has quicksand and a tide that returns faster than you can walk. Crossing it is done with a licensed guide, always, and that is not caution — people die there. Booked in advance, it gives the frame nobody else has: the Mont small, across wet sand, with the whole sky.
See the Mont-Saint-Michel page for how sessions there are planned.
Frequently asked questions
- Which tide should we choose?
- A coefficient above 100 if you want the Mont surrounded by water; below 70 if you want the sand. Both are published years ahead, so unlike almost everything else in photography, this one can be decided exactly.