France - Le Mont Saint-Michel

Julia from Germany sent me this awesome postcard of Le Mont Saint Michel. (English: Saint Michael's Mount). A place I would love to visit someday.  I have to admit I goofed when I signed up for the TAG on Postcrossing.  I did not read it closely and was thinking I was sending someone from "Another Country" a postcard.   But the TAG is to send someone a postcard of a different country then my own.  So I owe Julia another postcard. Hummm... I should have a Canadian postcard somewhere. *smirk*  Anyway.. you could image my confusion when I looked at the image and thought... 'Julia is in Germany... but this photo looks just like that one castle/convent near Normandy.... France.'  A light finally did come on eventually :)  I had looked up this location on Wiki a few weeks ago when another penpal (Robert) had a nice photo of himself horseback riding with Saint Michel in the background.  So at first I thought it was from him. 

Mont Saint Michel  is a rocky tidal island and a commune in Normandy, France. It is located approximately one kilometer off the country's north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. The population of the island is 41.

In prehistoric times the bay was land. As sea levels rose erosion shaped the coastal landscape over millions of years. Several blocks of granite or granulite emerged in the bay, having resisted the wear and tear of the ocean better than the surrounding rocks. These included Lillemer, the Mont-Dol, Tombelaine (the island just to the north), and Mont Tombe, later called Mont-Saint-Michel.

William de Volpiano, the Italian architect who had built the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy, was chosen as building contractor by Richard II of Normandy in the 11th century. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey, daringly placing the transept crossing at the top of the mount. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for this weight; these formed the basis for the supportive upward structure that can be seen today. Today Mont-Saint-Michel is seen as a Gothic-style church.

There is so much more info on this:) Mont Saint Michel

One stamps is of Bernhard Grzimek a renowned zoo director, zoologist, book author, editor, and animal conservationist in postwar West-Germany.

The apple stamps is written in German but Julia wrote "Rub & Smell" and sure enough it smells like fruity :)  Thanks!