* Mont St Michel, high tides and sandy bays

Lunch in the Mont St Michel Bay. A unique little train, designed to cross the mussel beds, will take you to a centuries old mussel farm where row upon row, over 300,000 in fact, of stakes driven into the sand, the "bouchots" are used to farm mussels. Dinner and overnight.

A day in the company of a professional regional guide. At the Mont St Michel Pavilion the problem of the silting up of the bay will be explained in detail, and so too the works undertaken in order to reverse the process : in particular the new dam, and pedestrian bridge for access. After lunch a stroll around the Mount (4kms), amidst the salt meadows and polders, will allow you to better understand the importance of retaining the insular status of this magnificent granite ile, the special nature of the tides and their effect on the silting up of the bay. Dinner and overnight.

A visit to the Vains Bay Centre to learn about salt production methods in use up until the 19th century. You can watch the process and take away a souvenir sample. Then a sheep farmer will explain traditional farming methods on the fields that are covered by the sea at very high tides. Lunch.