Fontrevaud Royal Abbey was founded by an itinerant preacher, Robert of Arbrissel, in 1101. His preaching caused some controversy and he was ordered to settle down by leaders of the church. This led to the establishment of a new monastic settlement and abbey at Fontrevaud about 3 miles south of the Loire.
The settlement became an important religious centre and unusual in that it was presided over by women. We decided to visit because it was on the way to our next stop and looked like an intersting place to go. Fontrevaud is a small village and you approach the abbey down a picture postcard strret of houses adorned with roses sbefore arriving at the abbey walls and an arch that takes you inside. Once inside what you see is somewhat unexpected. Rising high in front of you is a white stone building that gleamed in the morning sunlight. Inside is a simple but large space, with a high vaulted ceiling and at the end of the nave 4 efigies of kings (and a queen) of France and England. This is believed to have been the burial place of Henry ll and his wife Eleanor of Aquitance and their son, Richard the Lionheart and his brother King John. All told about 10 members of the powerful Plantagenet family were buried here.
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| Fontrevaud Abbey |
Beyond the main abbey building there is a beautiful set of cloisters with monastic rooms off including a chapter house decorated in beautiful wall paintings.
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| Cloisters at Fontrevaud |
The abbey tour takes you through various rooms with information about its history and occupants. Perhaps the most suprising thing you learn when visiting is that the abbey that you see today has been massively restored. Many abbeys in France were deconsecrated following the French revolution and in 1804 Fontrevaud was turned into a prison and continued to be used like this until 1963! It had a reputation for being one of the harshest penal institutions in France. It was very strange wandering around all these monastic buildings where kings and queens were buried to think that in my lifetime the skeltel remains of royalty were rubbing shoulders with hardened convicts.
After a lenghty stay at Fontrevaud we continued on to our next destination stopping for a quick leg stretch and a superb gelato in the pretty little village of Azay-le-Rideau which has a chateau and fast flowing river running through it.
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| Azay-le-Rideau |
Finally in late afternoon we arrived in Villandry, our base for a couple of nights and checked into an auberge. It was a very old building - and a little rustic but perfectly comfortable. We ate in their restaurant the first night. On the upside the food we eventually ate was very good but on the downside our main course food orders were completely mixed up. Mrs B ordered a duck fillet and got veal kidneys. I ordered a fillet of pollock but got another type of fish. Mrs B's food was whisked away and then mine was shortly after. The staff were very apologetic and Mrs B was very happy with the dessert - a rice pudding with rum soaked raisins - which was what she'd ordered.
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| Our auberge in Villandry |
The benefit of staying where we were was location. With just 100 meters to walk from our accomodation to the entrance to the chateau of Villandry we were able to have a leisurely breakfast and then just stroll along as the chateau opened. We were first in and started with the tour of the inside. Villandry is a renaissance chateau with a small moat at the front and extensive gardens. It was built in the earlier part of the 16th century and since then it has been added to, had bits removed and had various owners. It was extensively restored at the turn of the 20th century by a wealthy American woman and her Spanish husband. The inside was charming and, being first in, we had the rooms to ourselves for a while.
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| Interiors of Chateau Villandry |
The crowning glory at Villandry is not the house itself but the gardens. We climbed up to the top of the keep - the oldest part of the chateau - and this gave us a panoramic view of the gardens.
There are 6 different garden areas at Villandry on different levels with and around 100,000 plants and 85,000 vegetables tended by a team of 10 full time gardeners. The layout is very formal with planting in geometric patterns and everything is very orderly. Having decended from our vantage point we made our way via a belvedere to the highlest level where a lake has been created and from there we worked our way through all of the garden areas, taking our time to stroll under grape vines and past rows of flowers or vegetables along gravel paths with not a leaf or blade of grass out of place.
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| The gardens at Villandry |
For a visitor and gardening novice there are plans for each area showing what has been planted and where, which is helpful if you are not a plant expert - with translations into English.
Before finishing our tour we stopped to watch a large group of carp in the moat. They were milling about near the surface and opening their mouths. Not being knowledgeable abot carp behaviour I've no idea if this is unusual!
So far we'd escaped any rain during our travels but showers were forecast so having seen all the gardens we decided to spend the afternoon in the nearby city of Tours, only a 20 minute drive away - thinking if it did rain hard we could at least take shelter indoors. As it happened the rain mostly held off - so we didn't need to take shelter although almost as soon as we arrived we did dive into a cafe and each had a filled baguette - very filling and only 4 euros!
Full of carbohydrates we set about burning off a few calories by walking around Tours. We made our way around the block to Tours cathedral. It was unexpectedly impressive with two towers fronting the entrance. Inside was a high vaulted gothic cathedral full of light with some beaitiful 13th century stained glass windows.
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| Tours Cathedral |
From the cathedral we walked the short distance down to the Loire and crossed the river via pedestrian footbridge. We walked along the riverside until reaching another bridge, Pont Wilson, named after the former US President, that took us back across the river. Part way along the bridge a lady stopped hearing our English voices. She lived in Tours but had fallen in love with England when she made a pen friend years ago. She spoke excellent English and we chatted for a few minutes about the places she had been to in England and the places we had visited in France. It was a lovely friendly encounter.
Our ramblings eventually brought us to the old medieval centre of the city with a compact network of cobbled streets lined with old stone and half timbered buildings. We sat at the corner at Place Plumereau eating an ice cream and watching people go by before we walked a little further with no particular destination in mind. I like just wandering around new places, sometimes off the main routes, immersing myself in the sights and sounds.
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| Tours |
After an afternoon in Tours which was much calmer than Nantes and quite relaxing to walk around we eventually returned to our car and headed back to Villandry.
Before going back to our auberge I took a country lane out of the village to find a farm specialising in goats cheese. The enterprising farmer had installed a self service vending machine - open 24 hours a day. Handy if anyone local needed an emergency top up of cheese in the early hours of the morning. I bought a small piece and popped it in a cool bag, hoping it would not get too ripe before I could sample it.
That evening I booked a table at a restaurant called L'etape Gourmand' about a mile out of the village. This was another lovely meal, classically French, in rustic surroundings with perfectly cooked food and mouth watering desserts. For three nights in a row we'd had really well cooked and presented french food.
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