and this year, the island celebrates a very special anniversary. it is the 1,000 anniversary of the construction of the church. how on earth did they construct something like this 1,000 years ago? mm—hm. yeah. this is the best of medieval engineering. and it started off as a sanctuary dedicated to saint michel — saint michael — in the year 708. then it took off. you know, the pilgrims started to come. they had to come across the bay, so walk through the sands, and then it developed in the 11th century with the construction of the church. the abbey sits at the top of the cliff, surrounded by the village below. even nowadays, there are quicksands out there. there are a lot of strong currents. so it must have been a really important site for people to want to make that kind ofjourney to see this place. yeah. it was the journey of a lifetime.