Looking along the cloister arcade of the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel — Gothic ribbed vaulting receding in tight perspective on the left, slender paired columns casting shadows on the stone floor, and across the open courtyard the abbey church wall rising with its spectacular Gothic pinnacles and the diamond-pattern polychrome tile roof that is one of the architectural signatures of the mount. The abbey at Mont Saint-Michel was founded in 708 AD and has been a place of pilgrimage ever since; the cloister seen here dates to the 13th century and is considered one of the finest examples of Norman Gothic architecture in France. This card was sold by the official Service Commercial des Monuments Historiques — the French government's heritage agency — making it an authorized souvenir of the monument itself.

• Caption: Abbaye du Mont St-Michel — Le Cloître et l'Eglise Abbatiale
• Card no.: 50 353 7267 507
• Publisher: Serv. Commercial Monuments Historiques, Grand Palais, Av. Alexandre-III, Paris
• Status: Unposted