I was watching TV with my boyfriend when a travel commercial came on. It showed clips of the usual tourist hot spots: Tokyo’s Shibuya crossing, London’s Big Ben, New York’s Time Square, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and then I saw this amazing castle that I have never seen before. There it was, an image of Mont Saint Michel at night, with all the pretty lights glistening against the water. Immediately, I was blown away by its beauty. It reminded me of Rapunzel’s castle in Tangled. As soon as I realized it was a real place I said out loud, “I have to go there.” My boyfriend turned to me and said, “You can go there, that’s Mont Saint Michel, it’s in France.”

At this time, we had already bought plane tickets to go to Paris a couple months earlier. And from there, there rest is history. I saw it on TV and I made it my reality to go there. Despite it being a STRUGGLE getting there from Paris (4 hour train ride and 1 hour bus ride and a lot of stairs), it was worth every second.

From the photos, you can clearly see why one can easily fall in love with this beautiful and magnificent village. It has such a majestic fairy tale like draw; so much so that it was the inspiration for Minas Tirith in the Lord of the Rings films.

It was built strategically about 600 meters off​ the coast of in the Atlantic Ocean. The tides actually determine whether it’s accessible by land to visitors (or enemies). Isn’t that just amazing?! The walk through the village down below is what I imagine it would be like walking down Diagon Alley on my way to see Hogwarts castle!