REPORTAGE
After confinement due to coronavirus, the monuments slowly reopen their doors. The Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel is accessible, since Monday, for visitors, with very strict sanitary rules. Wearing a mask is compulsory from 11 years old, the route is marked for a one-way visit. These are only commented on with audio guides and tickets are sold online. "We let 40 people pass every quarter of an hour, which means that we have a gauge for the day of 1,280 people", explains Alain, member of staff. "We usually have around 5,000 people at this time of year."
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Result for the rare visitors: the feeling of having the abbey for them alone. "It's magic, it's wonderful to see it without the coaches of foreign tourists. It's so good to be so few. There were 15 of us up there at the abbey," rejoices one of the tourists present. .
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"I was happy to see people again"
After three lethargic months, the first visitors are mainly French. They give morale to Sophie, manager of the shop "Le Grand Bazar". "We had the impression that the world was nothing more than stones, there was no more soul, nothing more. I was happy to see again the world which arrives and which has eyes wide open", confides she. "And to say to ourselves, that's it we are in total freedom. It's exceptional. Frankly, it's really nice to see."
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As for the recipes of his shop, we will have to wait until next year to find a classic level. Asian and American tourists, the favorite customers of shops around Mont-Saint-Michel, will be sorely lacking for the first time this summer.