The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud – Review

– –

AN ARTISTIC AUTUMN

The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud welcomes artists in residence, concerts, temporary exhibitions – not to be missed “Artists’ stained glass windows” – and permanent installations. Thus, “Death in summer” by Claude Levêque occupies the old dormitory. François Morellet, for his part, signed “A wink to Saint Benedict”. The artist combines a play of cosmic light with a fragmented luminous line of red neon, a reference to the lightning of God which illuminates Saint Benedict in his cave one evening. This contemporary art route can be visited until 1^is November. The following month, the Museum of Modern Art hosting the collection of Martine and Léon Cligman with works by César, Delacroix, Degas will (finally) open its doors.

THE IBAR AND THE RESTAURANT

We discover the wines of the region at the iBar, built in the chapel of the Saint-Lazare priory. This bar is dressed in a long oak monolith, a modern four-ton structure that serves as tables. At Fontevraud Le Restaurant, room for the world of Thibaut Ruggeri, Bocuse d’or monde 2013, a Michelin star since 2017. The chef is inspired by lunar cycles. Its refined cuisine draws some of its raw materials from the abbey’s vegetable garden. The latter supplies the restaurant with vegetables, honey and fruit. What to receive in January 2020 the sustainable gastronomy prize with a “green badge” from the Michelin guide.

A FEW MILESTONES

It all started with Robert d’Arbrissel who installed his disciples here in 1101. In less than a century, the religious community became the symbol of the power of the Plantagenets. The nave of the abbey church still houses the four recumbent figures of this dynasty: Eleanor of Aquitaine, who contributed to the richness of the place before retiring there until his death in 1204, Henri II Plantagenêt, their son Richard Coeur de Lion, and Isabelle d’Angoulême. After the French Revolution, the goods are nationalized. Napoleon I^is converts the old monastery into a prison estate, and presto, the monks’ cells become those of the prisoners.

TABLE RASA

Since 2014, the house of fine bubbles Ackerman and the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud have combined their know-how to create a new creative space, the Residence Ackerman. The Chapuisat brothers, who came from Switzerland, built “Tabula Rasa” last year: two monumental wooden structures. The first is located in the heart of the rock walls of the troglodyte cellars of the wine house, in Saumur. The second can be found in the little wood of the abbey hotel. To see until 2022.

HOTEL FONTEVRAUD

The hotel seduces with its sleek design. The icing on the cake, the 54 rooms are housed in the former priory registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. The abbey closed to the public, we continue our walk in the evening in the heart of the 14 hectare domain in discreet steps nuns of old. From the cloister, we reach the century-old gardens in a soothing and invigorating silence.

– .