Moulin de Moidrey is a Working Mill Near Mont St-Michel
We stopped in at Moulin de Moidrey on our way from Mont St-Michel to Fougères several summers ago. My fascination with windmills stems from childhood so when I first got to climb inside a windmill on a trip to the Netherlands, I was totally hooked on exploring every mill I can find. This mill is just 5 km from Mont St-Michel and is thus a perfect little side-trip.
Moulin de Moidrey on a sunny July day
Of course I had tons of questions: What type of mill is this? Can we go inside? Can we climb to the top? So many questions and the answers are all good!
I remember climbing inside a working flour mill in the Netherlands and being covered in a light dusting of flour by the time I left. It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g! Moulin de Moidrey is a working flour mill also. You can purchase a variety of flours as you can see from the shelf below. Prices are listed on the blackboard.
Multiple varieties of stone ground flour
Price chart on the ancient stone wall
Another family arrived as we were making our flour purchases, so they toured the mill with us. This was a huge bonus as the miller took great care to carefully explain the milling process to their young son. Because he spoke slowly to this child (who was super attentive), it was easy to follow his French explanations. He supplemented some of his explanation in French with enough English that despite our varying levels of French, we were all able to follow along.
Moulin de Moidrey is a Working Flour Mill
The threshing basket
The process of milling continues here as it has from the beginning of the mill. First the chaff is removed from the wheat as it tumbles in these baskets. Turning the crank at the end of the box rotates and tumbles the wheat. (The light level was very low so my picture quality is not the best in some of these photos – sorry!)
Ready to be milled
Once the chaff is removed, the grains of wheat are ready to be milled.
This shaft connects to the sails above which are used as the force to turn the mill stone.
The wind turns the sails of the windmill which in turn rotate the mill stone.
The bag of milled flour being lowered to the ground floor.
Once the wheat is milled into flour, a pulley is used to lower he bags of flour to the ground flour via this nifty little “trap door”. The littlest visitor was allowed to lower the bag of flour part way.
Helping the miller lower the bag of flour
The tour was fascinating and we enjoyed the explanation of the various types of flours. Our flour found its way into pancakes and a loaf of bread!
You will find a list of the opening times and guided tour fees at the Normandy tourism site. It costs nothing to enter the ground floor of the mill to purchase flour.
We said farewell to both the mill and Mont St-Michel before heading on down the road to Fougères.
Mont St-Michel viewed from Moulin de Moidrey
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