Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy, France

Charles turned sketches he made during his honeymoon into prints when he returned from Europe to St. Louis. This depiction of the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey church in Normandy, France, was one he selected. The image shows the care Charles took to depict the building’s Gothic pinnacles, emphasizing the height of its spire. He captured the abbey’s dramatic position on a hill overlooking houses below, and the surrounding wall that fortified the medieval island city against enemies and tides. Unlike the Schocken department store sketched by Charles on the same trip, the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey was not the product of a single architect, but rather several between the 10th and 19th centuries.