Avranches, looking towards Mont St. Michel

In late 1848, on a trip delayed by revolution, Ruskin and his new wife travelled on a tour of Northern France. He and Effie found the countryside around Avranches very beautiful but they were disappointed with Mont St Michel. Although “picturesque – beyond bettering, almost… these sands are only covered by the tide about once in six days.” “I have not often been more disappointed,” Ruskin wrote to his father on 8 September, “ [it] is surrounded by a flat of filthy sand”.