St Michel (Mong Sang Mee-shell'), Mont, an extraordinary rocky islet of the Norman dep. of Manche, in the Bay of St Michel, 18 miles WSW. of Avranches. It is a solitary cone of granite, a thousand yards in circumference and 242 feet high. It rises sheer out of a level expanse of sand, and is a most striking feature in the landscape. Till 1880-81 it was only accessible by crossing the sands at low-water, there being a firm track across them, with quicksands to right and left; but a good road was then formed along a causeway a mile in length. A Druid stronghold once, the islet, as the scene of an apparition of St Michael in 708, became the seat of a great Benedictine monastery, which, 'half church of God, half fortress,' has memories of Henry L, II., and V. of England, resisting the last successfully in two sieges. The Revolution transformed this celebrated place of pilgrimage into a prison, and such it remained until 1863; in 1874 it was declared a ' monument historique,' and large sums have been spent on its restoration by Viollet-le-Duc and his successor. The buildings include the church (c. 1140-1521), with Norman nave and Flamboyant choir; the exquisite cloisters (1228); the Halle des Chevaliers, where Louis XL in 1469 founded the order of St Michael; and 'La Mer-veille,' the monastery proper, so called from its huge north wall of the 13th century, 246 feet long and 108 high. Beneath is a village (pop. 250).