One of France's most popular tourist hotspots and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the medieval monastery sitting on top of the tidal island of Mont-Saint-Michel, is getting a makeover.

Located in a bay in north-western France shared by Normandy and Brittany, Mont-Saint-Michel becomes an island amid high tides, a rare phenomenon during which the water rises as fast as it has receded. In the space of a few hours, the famous tourist monument is cut off from the world.

The abbey is an important part of the structural composition of the town, and for centuries was one of Europe's major pilgrimage destinations. It has been protected as a French monument historique since 1862, and is now a museum and tourist hotspot that attracts millions of visitors every year.

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But having been weathered by the elements and eaten away by humidity, sand and wind, Mont-Saint-Michel is undergoing a three-year restoration project to keep the structure sound.

"You have lichen, moss and plants which infiltrate and which are present in numbers on this northern façade of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel," said Thomas Velter, general director of the Mont-Saint-Michel association.

"This northern façade of the Merveille is subject to the marine elements, the winds, the rain and all that one can imagine here on this island of Mont-Saint-Michel, which becomes an island again regularly with the great tides," he added.

The restoration works are taking place on a very large scale, with part of the building covered in 90 tons of scaffolding, the height of the Arc de Triomphe.

"It was indeed urgent. Urgent because the elements, the weathered blocks, the weathered stone blocks, are very damaged and could fall," said chief architect François Jeanneau.

The process involves first cleaning off all the algae-infested walls. Then, the blocks of stone that make up an essential part of the structure, and are in danger of falling, must be replaced. And it's all taking place under the watchful eyes of archeologists. 

"Finally, all of this will enable us to analyze and advance our knowledge of this building, because we are far from knowing all the history and all the details of the construction of this part of the building in the 13th century," said Jeanneau.

"The idea is to preserve and transmit this magnificent building to our future generations," he added.

Video editor: David Bamford. Cover image: Damien Meyer/AFP