Fontevraud, in the secrets of a royal abbey

What do Michel Sardou and Eleanor of Aquitaine have in common? Fontevraud! The singer spent part of his military service there (Le rire du sergent, is a nod to the Fontevraud dragoon regiment) and the Queen of France and England rests in the impressive abbey church, as majestic as 'a cathedral.

Welcome to Fontevraud, the fountain of Evraud, highway robber who would have found refuge there with his companions.

But the great history book of the site opens in the year 1101 with the arrival of Robert d'Abrissel, a character with a sulphurous reputation: he was very fond of women. But he was also an incredible preacher who moved followed by a horde of women, men, rich and poor. To put an end to these peregrinations, and take advantage of his talents as an orator, Pope Urban II ordered him to found a monastery on the vast lands generously offered by the crowned heads, on the borders of the provinces of Poitou, Anjou and Touraine. 
Driven by his new fervor, Robert d'Abrissel founded not one but four monasteries, taking care to separate men and women, rich and poor.

 At the heart of this vast monastic complex, the building of “Grand-Moustier” or “Marie” where the wealthy nuns from the nobility lived. The days of these contemplative sisters were devoted to prayer.
"Marie-Madeleine" welcomed widows, former prostitutes, single mothers. The lay sisters prayed only 3 hours a day, the rest of the time was taken up with work in the fields, cooking, washing...
A little apart, "Saint-Lazare" was occupied by the sisters designated to care for surrounding lepers.
As for the fourth monastery, "Saint-Jean-de-l'Habit", outside the enclosure, it welcomed monks.
To lead all this little world, Robert d'Abrissel appointed an abbess. In all, 36 abbesses watched over the destiny of Fontevraud, an abbey cherished and protected by the nobility and especially the Plantagenets.
 The recumbent effigies of Aliénor d'Aquitaine, Henri II and their son Richard Cœur de lion still seem to be on guard in the vast nave of the abbey church.
The small palace of the Abbess Montespan also bears witness to the cultural life led by the abbesses of royal blood. In the 16th century, the monastery even housed a boarding school for girls of royal blood.

Up to 300 nuns lived, worked, prayed in Fontevraud.
But the revolution put an abrupt end to the flourishing life of this small monastic city. The holy women were driven out, the monastery of the men outside the walls, dismantled to recover the stones
. In 1804, Napoleon I transformed the entire site into a prison like Clairvaux or Mont Saint Michel. Fontevraud was the worst of all, the life expectancy of those who returned there was only two years... Paradoxically, it was this second life that certainly saved Fontevraud from destruction...

Reconstruction

From 1840 Prosper Mérimée had the site protected as a historic monument, one of the first in France.
Before leaving the prison, which closed its doors definitively in 1963, the last prisoners will have started the renovation work and restored approximately 5% of the site.
 In 1975, the Cultural Center of the West launched the beginning of heritage, cultural and tourist mediation in Fontevraud. The Abbey then turned resolutely towards creation, with the aim of enhancing its exceptional heritage. Bringing together the world of art and history and that of new technologies, linking architecture and virtual reality, such is the vocation of Fontevraud.
The abbey and the arts have woven a history that is renewed from season to season. The music brings together classical music and contemporary creation, world music and popular references.
Animated cinema and other artistic expressions such as theatre, storytelling, plastic arts, dance, find in Fontevraud a setting in which to flourish. Some works are discreet, such as this work by François Maltais in the Saint-Benoît chapel, so as not to disturb the silence that was once imposed on prisoners in this place.

In 2014, the Saint-Lazare priory found a new vocation with the opening of a design hotel with refined elegance.

An old chapel houses the bar after having been the office of a tooth puller…

The tables of a gourmet restaurant bring one of the cloisters back to life (chef Thibaut Ruggeri was awarded a Michelin star in 2017).

Time travel

To make the most of the visit, it is better to document yourself beforehand, take an audio guide or, even better, follow a guided tour.
The bare interior of the various buildings can be confusing but allows, by taking a little time and letting your mind wander, to better immerse yourself in the turbulent history of this beautiful site.
So take the time and sit on one of the many benches that invite you to rest.
 By letting your gaze lazily embrace the plants of the herb garden (it is allowed to nibble on berries and other cherry tomatoes),

by letting your mind wander freely, perhaps you will then hear in the murmur of the fountain, the incessant prayers that have resounded for seven centuries in this place and watering its inhabitants with the word of the Scriptures 

If you sleep at the hotel or dine at the restaurant, you benefit from a rare privilege: the discovery of Fontevraud by night.

The abbey church seems immense in its simplicity of an almost immaculate white where, only one end of a fresco recalls the time of its splendor of yesteryear. 

Observe the four recumbent figures: Eleanor does not take the pose of a dead woman, she seems to be reading, testifying to her "erudition". Her burial is higher than that of her husband Henry II. A little post-mortem revenge, no doubt?

A few marks in the walls recall the intermediate floors which supported the cells, the prisoners' workshops. Would you dare to go down into the crypt, the abbey's little necropolis?
In one of the many cloisters, sit on a low wall and wait. Let yourself be impregnated by the deep silence that reigns there. If the silhouette of a nun disappeared down the hall, you wouldn't even be surprised. 

In the rooms, the artistic installations, admired during the day, take on another dimension, awakening your imagination.

As you settle back into one of the black boats overhung by innumerable red glass sticks with a psychedelic clink, the title of the work “Death in Summer” comes back to haunt you.

The descent into the underground where Julien SALAUD has woven his webs around a barn that spreads its wings, can cause anxiety….

Hervé will tell you that I exaggerate. Surely, but that's how I experienced this nocturnal visit and my sleep was filled with strange dreams...

This place where so many men and women have met over nine hundred centuries, where so many destinies have left their mark, exudes a certain serenity, despite the horror that reigned there for a certain period. 

The abbey now fully lives with the times. The former factory where prisoners made supplies for the army, hosts the site's energy center, with two local wood pellet boilers, a technical center with a high-tech composter. 

The engine room with a "time-line" of its construction can already be visited.

It looks like an art installation with light effects.

In all these development and development works, the abbey also takes care of the fauna and flora in order to become a high place for the preservation of the natural heritage.