Monday 10 September 2012

Illumination (Mont St Michel II)

On a wet and dreary day in Dublin (and not many places do wet and dreary like my home town) I'm focusing on moments of brightness.  Which is why my errands this morning were accessorised with a cheetah-print jacket and a cocktail ring ....

The dampness reminded me of a visit to Mont St Michel on an equally wet day last June.


I had visited le Mont before, but never been inside the famous abbey, so that is where we resolved to go.  We wound up the narrow cobbled street, where shops and cafes were trying their best to counteract the dull day.


I focused on the small details:

The tap with the coat of arms of the abbey's founder,


the light in the cloister,



the light installation in the refectory,


these beautiful stained glass mobiles inspired by illuminated capitals from a medieval manuscript.




The theme of the installations seemed to be 'light' (as in 'let there be'), but about two thirds of the way through our visit we noticed that the building seemed to be getting darker and darker.  It turned out the electricity supply had been temporarily affected by the weather. Not just throughout the abbey, but throughout the village.

Oh, the irony.  

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