The Complete Small Group Paris to Mont Saint-Michel Day Trip & Exclusive Bay Tour

This exclusive Paris to Mont Saint-Michel day trip by high speed train starts early in Montparnasse train station, where you'll meet your expert guide and small group of maximum 18 other travelers. Then you'll zip up to Rennes in just 90 minutes. From there you'll hop a bus for an hour and twenty-minute ride to your destination. Most tour groups take five hours to get from Paris to Mont Saint-Michel. Our combined travel time of roughly three hours means you'll be crossing the bay into the fairytale village of Mont Saint-Michel when most other day-trippers are just over halfway there. With seven hours on the ground, you'll spend much more time in this lovely village and its surroundings than anyone else.

When you arrive in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Mont Saint-Michel, your guide will have already checked the day's tide times and you'll take advantage of the low tide to do something else that no one else will have the opportunity to enjoy: kick off your shoes and step out into the actual bay to enjoy a full tour from a local naturalist. You'll learn all about the unique geology that formed the base of the village as well as the unique wetlands that surround it. You'll also get to see some of the infamous quicksand that was once the scourge of pilgrims crossing the bay and get a demonstration from your guide on how to get out of it. Don't forget to bring a camera; the views of village and abbey are second to none.

When you return to terra firma, you'll enjoy a 45-minute tour of the ancient streets and fortified city walls as your guide fills you in on the tumultuous history of this religious commune. Because of its location, Mont Saint-Michel has been important to everyone from kings and bishops to countless religious pilgrims. Your guide will regale you with stories about terrible sieges, savage battles and how the sea itself was often the biggest deterrent to anyone trying to get in.

You'll break for lunch around midday. It's not included in this Paris to Mont Saint-Michel Day Trip, but your guide will give you plenty of restaurant recommendations. Don't miss the famously fluffy omelettes - a local specialty.

After lunch you'll head inside the Abbey to learn about a religious history dating back over 1,000 years. The Abbey hasn't just hosted monks, however. Inside you'll see beautiful gothic architecture along with much grimmer touches, like a human 'hamster wheel' that was used by convicts imprisoned in the Abbey after the French Revolution to haul goods up the cliff sides. The highlight of the building is its highest tower, which, on a clear day, affords you 360-degree views for miles around the bay and surrounding countryside. It's not hard to see why so many have wanted to control this tiny rock throughout the centuries.

At the end of the tour you'll hop back on the bus to Rennes and, from there, catch another high-speed train back to Paris. You'll arrive back in Montparnasse at 9.00 pm having seen and done more than anyone else taking a Paris to Mont Saint-Michel Day Trip.