14 – Red Door

What’s that secret you’re keeping?

Continuing the walk to the abbey, and not for the first time in France, I was fascinated by mysterious red doors. Readers of Paris…In My Pocket! will recall the ‘door to nowhere’ at the Cluny Museum I wrote about – now, probably due mainly to the particular shade (a tint of oxidised red) painted on this and other doors at Mont St Michel my thoughts went straight back to Cluny. Gaining access to this one was however no mystery. The vegetated state of the granite steps indicated that they and the door are not frequently used, and the presence of the somewhat rusted metal pulley hoist left me wondering just what this building once housed. Perhaps it still does?

Notice in particular the detail of the ironmongery on the door. The ironwork and ‘hardware’ was to be a feature throughout the Mont that would attract my frequent attention, some of it certainly dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The blacksmithing workshops of both Brittany and Normandy are legendary and here this traditional craft is still practised. Although I never got to see it there is a museum in Rouen (Musée Le Secq des Tournelles) devoted to the craft.

The impeccable work of the Mont’s stonemasons is also again evident, with some signs of recent repair and repointing work having been done. There were frequent signs of ongoing maintenance around the buildings of the Mont - I trust it shall never again be left to deteriorate as it once was. Tourist revenues at the site must be significant, but so too will be the ongoing costs of maintenance ensuring that your entrance fee will assuredly be well spent. The steel window frames I mentioned yesterday are more clearly visible here, and the clarity of the glazing in the windows gives away the fact that they too are recent installations.

I have used this image in a series of sepia prints I did – it takes on a strongly religious feeling with such treatment … or was I beginning to feel the spiritual ambience of the Mont as we walked ever closer to the abbey?

Incidentally - I never did find out what happens behind that door.