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.

Giverny

We decided that we would retrace our journey a little and drive back towards Paris and spend a day in Giverny and hope that it would not be too crowded. We had intended to make a stop, to see some part of the Normandy beach landing areas, but managed to miss the exit in Bayeux.
Giverny is near to Vernon, where we had inadvertently passed  through on our trip out to Normandy, so it was a bit familiar! The village of Giverny is quite small and in a beautiful location. Our B & B for the night was tucked away in a small lane and was quiet and just lovely.
The central parking lot in the village was very civilized with shade trees on every row, maybe a model we could emulate.

 We had reservations for dinner at the Baudy Hotel in the evening, which was just a short walk from the B&B.

This is where Monet, Cezanne and all the other artists associated with Giverny gathered, so it was a must, to see and visit. We had a very good meal, starting with "aperitif locale" through terrine, brochette of lamb, poached fish and on  to a mixed fruit sorbet topped with whipped cream, (that was Diane's desert, the memory of which, she is still drooling over).

Standing in line at the entrance to Monet's house and garden, we struck up a conversation with the people behind us, only to discover that they were from San Francisco. The parents had just retired and were taking a European trip to celebrate accompanied by their daughter who used to work at YouTube and is now at a start-up in SF called "poptalk".
 Later in the gardens we met a couple from Otis, Oregon. It's a small world!

The gardens were not too crowded and there were flowers everywhere. The gardens and grounds are very well maintained and looked well cared for, which must be a challenge with the huge crowds of visitors that arrive during the summer months.

The weather kept threatening rain and the temperature was "spring like", hence the rain gear.

We toured Monet's house. It was inspiring to walk through areas where he had lived and worked. This area was a sitting room, his huge studio is now the gift gallery.

I really liked this kitchen area with the great stove and all of the walls tiled.

The streets in the village had a really nice feel, flowers everywhere and we saw no trash anywhere.

We walked to the far end of the village to visit the church where Monet is buried, quite an austere church, but with a graveyard full of very elaborate markers.

Also in the graveyard was a memorial to airmen that lost their lives when their Lancaster bomber crashed close to the village during WWII. It was clear that the local residents cared deeply.

The memorial incorporates part of the crashed bombers propeller.

The grave listed all of the names, most were 20years old with the exception of the pilot, who was aged 32. I could not help thinking that if I had been born a few years earlier,  my name could have been on that stone. A sobering thought, as we still seem to think that wars are the answer.

There were many poppies of all colors, I could not help trying for a hand held close up!

Cool guy!

For some reason there was a large building full of old engines in various states of restoration. A nice counterpoint, I thought, to all of the wonderful Monet garden scenes which abound.

Giverny was a great experience and, at last, I can pronounce it pretty much like it should be.
On to the Loire region, stay tuned.

Normandy

We managed to get out of Charles De Gaulle airport fairly easily, traffic was light and the car's GPS seemed to be working well. We were bowling along a great French motorway and then the GPS voice, female, and with a great BBC accent, sent us off the motorway and through some industrial towns. After several miles and many roundabouts, we stopped at a patisserie in a town called Vernon to take a break and try and see just where we were on our journey to Normandy. Our initial look on Mapquest indicated motorways most of the way, so something seemed amiss. Light-bulb goes off in my head, what settings were in the GPS? Made the change from "avoid tolls" and we were quickly on a tollway to Normandy.

Western France is much flatter than I realized with mile after mile of farmland, it could be Kansas if it were not for the cheese and wine and .....
We eventually got to Jeff and Oriana's place, my brother and sister-in-law, and had a great welcome and reunion. We last saw them five years ago and we had not been to Normandy for many years.

 Their house, an old French farmhouse that they have, and continue, to renovate.

My brother and me, you can see he got the hair gene!

They have beautiful landscaping and it was a lovely day, so a bit of lawn moving was called for. The weather cooperated quite well, although it was pretty cold for the middle of May, even the locals were complaining.

A visit to a local flea market, much the same wherever they are held.

Market day in the nearby town of Portbail.

Diane searching out treasures.

Portbail has a significant tidal range which, when the water is in, it covers all of this area and at times, close to the top of the bridge arches you can see on the right of the panorama.

 A bit closer view.

This is the name of the small village where my brother lives.

It was sunny enough at times, as you can see.

A good friend of Jeff and Oriana's, who now lives in the US, was paying a visit with all of her family and they were staying nearby, so a celebration ensued. (The little Sony alpha 6000 did pretty well in the dark.)

That's everyone at another gathering for food and wine, I do so love France!

Did I mention the food!

 A fortified castle called Pirou, which is in a very good state of repair, still has a moat and the obvious remainder of a gate that must have had a portcullis at one time. The castle was constructed during the period covering the 11th to 14th centuries.

Up on the ramparts, there are arrow slits along the wall shown on the left.

There was also a very large cider press in an out building. The large beam at the top pivoted on the vertical structure pressing down on a stack of apples contained in large 8ft square "boxes". Pressure applied with the large wheel and screw mechanism resulted in the juice being squeezed from the apples.

An English sign among the French!

 And there is the food again, crabs bought live at the market, dispatched with thanks and about to be consumed with some some great bread, cheese, etc. etc

 Home made desserts.

A wonderful beach bar and restaurant called "Le Bac a Sable".  Yes, you can get Guinness as well as French wine.

A mobile wood fire barbeque at the side of the road.

A lovely lunch at a restaurant called "Auberge de L'Ouve" where the meat is grilled over the fire in the hearth, next to our table. It was also noticeable that the customers were all local, we were the only outsiders in the dining room.
A great way to end our stay in Normandy and set up for the next stops that Oriana and Diane arranged.
On to Giverny, stay tuned,