Fontevraud Abbey

We left Giverny after a great visit and good weather to make our way down to the Loire valley and a visit to Fontevraud Abbey. We were booked into a wonderful country house hotel called Domaine de Mestre which was an interesting navigation challenge, but we found it in the end.

The entrance to the courtyard was quite impressive, but it took us a moment to find the reception desk. Check-in was easy as one of the staff spoke good English having lived in Scotland for a while. We were escorted to our room by the owner, who regaled us with a continuous stream of French, of which we could comprehend little, but that small fact did not deter him one bit. We had a great suite with two bedrooms and a huge bathroom!

Part of the courtyard.

The front of the house, and one of our windows looked out onto this scene.
We also had dinner in the hotel which was very upscale, with high ceilings, chandeliers and decorated in tasteful French style. The dinner was very good, Diane had fresh fish and I had the rack of lamb, the tenderest I can ever remember eating. French are very serious about food, and we want to take full advatage if that fact.
After breakfast the next day, we made the short drive to the Abbey in Fontevraud.

The Abbey was founded in the early 12th century and was headed by an Abbess with powerful connections to the royalty of the time. The Abbey maintaned these connections for many hundreds of years until the the monastery's disestablishment during the French Revolution. The above photograph is the cathedral part of the Abbey and is striking in it's lack of ornamentation.

No stained glass, but spectacular, to say the least.

The whole space is given to four tombs, these two are of King Henry II of England and his wife Alienor d' Aquitaine. Henry died in 1189 and Alienor in 1204.
Also buried alongside these two are their son Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) and Isabella d' Angouleme who was married to King John of England.
Lots of complex history, most of it bloody and feudal!

The exterior of that very bare but majestic space.

Another view of the courtyard and some of the quarters where the nuns once resided.

I just love these covered walkways that surround the courtyard.

 

Some ornamentation in other areas of the Abbey

 

One has to wonder about those who have trodden these tiles over the centuries.

This intriguing structure is very visible as you enter the Abbey grounds and we discovered it was the "cookhouse". Inside each of the round tower structures was room for a large fire, and the center cone- like roof was likely intended to vent out any interior smoke. Just imagine what a scene that must have been.

Back into the town, we looked for somewhere to eat, away from the touristy bits, and found Chez Teresa. We had a divine quiche and salad lunch with cups of tea.   Then discovered the owner was English and had been in Fontevraud since 2006. The cafe and shop was a fun find.

Teresa's cool sign.

Nearby we were intrigued to hear that there were cliff dwellings where they had made a form of dried apples in the past.  We found the area and were somewhat underwhelmed, interesting but.....

Needing a bite to eat, but not a large meal, we wandered around Montsoreau and discovered that no one served food until at least 7pm, it is Europe after all.
We found the local bar overlooking the Loire river and ordered the local cider to await the arrival of the cook.

It turned out we were in the local sports bar with betting on horse racing going on around us!

Looking out into the bar.

The river Loire outside the bar.

A couple of photographs to give you some idea of the interior of our hotel.

Diane catching some sun before we set off on the next leg of our journey.
St. Emillion and the moulin.

Stay tuned.