Baie du mont Saint-Michel, Ramsar wetland spanning the bay between Brittany and Normandy, France
The Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel lies between Brittany and Normandy, from the Pointe du Grouin near Cancale to the cliffs of Carolles and Granville. Its roughly 500 square kilometres of tidal flats are cut by channels such as the Sée and Sélune estuaries, with salt marshes behind the tidal zone and the granite islet of Mont-Saint-Michel standing offshore.
The bay was added to the Ramsar list in 1994 under the name Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, covering the mudflats and salt marshes shared by the Brittany and Normandy coasts. France had signed the Ramsar Convention in 1971, and the listing committed the site to wetland conservation. The bay also forms part of the Mont-Saint-Michel national nature reserve framework.
The bay takes its name from Mont-Saint-Michel, the famous abbey perched on an island at the water's edge that has drawn pilgrims for centuries. Local communities have shaped their lives around the rhythms of the tides and the resources these waters provide.
The area is accessible from many small towns including Cancale, Avranches, and Granville, each offering parking and visitor information. The best time to explore is at low tide when the mudflats are exposed and easier to walk across with guidance.
The bay is a nursery for most fish species of the Norman-Breton Gulf, and its mudflats and sandbanks host a colony of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), not grey seals. The seals stay all year and haul out to rest on the banks as the tide falls, so they are best watched from a distance with binoculars.
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