The Giant Tortoises of Mont St-Michel

A couple of summers ago we were at Mont St-Michel in Normandy, France. You will probably have heard of Mont St-Michel even if you haven't been there - a huge, triangular rock sticking up out of the sea with a whole village built on it. If you haven't been there for thirty years or so you will remember it as a remote, beautiful place full of atmosphere. If you have been there recently you will remember it as a large, crowded gift shop full of tourists.

One of the things I remember best about it is, strangely, the giant tortoises. They weren't on the rock itself: they were on the main road that leads to Mont St-Michel, in a vivarium placed there in a strategic position to mop up the tourists on the way there or back.


You could wander round their enclosure and and the sign, above, told you in no uncertain terms what you could do when you were in there.

In French the instructions were quite simple: it says such things as "it is forbidden to lift them up" and "it is forbidden to give them anything to eat". But whoever had done the translation into English had the soul of a poet and this is what the English says:

YOU CAN GO INTO THIS ENCLOSURE IF YOU ABIDE BY THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS
do not sit on tortoises
do not beat them as if they were drums
do not play with them as if they were balls
do not open the door if it is shut and do not shut if it is open
please, do not scatter the grass
do not give it to tortoises which feed themselves

We obeyed all the instructions and were very well-behaved and the tortoises made us very welcome.