Today we travel with Marcia DeSanctis to France, where, on a dark early morning at Mont St. Michel, she’s reminded of the importance of vigilance, and the existence of angels.

Maggie Downs is the author of the memoir Braver Than You Think: Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's) Lifetime, published in 2020 by Counterpoint Press. Her work has been anthologized in Best Women’s Travel Writing and Lonely Planet’s True Stories From the World’s Best Writers, and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and McSweeney’s, among others. She is based in Palm Springs, California.