Fontevraud, a perfect stop in France’s Loire Valley

A beautiful stop in the Loire Valley of France, near the town of Saumur, is the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud.

The order, founded there in 1101 by the controversial reformist priest Robert d’Arbrissel, welcomed men and women who lived and worked side-by-side. Click here for a photo gallery of Fontevraud.

D’Arbrissel stipulated that Fontevraud should be ruled by widows who took vows after their husbands’ deaths, never by those raised in the cloister. Among the abbesses were aunts, sisters and widows of kings. In the 18th century, the daughters of Louis XV spent their early years there.

Fontevraud’s most famous woman was the wily and beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine, first wed to Louis VII of France and then to Henry II of England. After many turbulent years of marriage, Eleanor retired to the abbey in 1194 and died there 10 years later. Both she and Henry, as well as their son Richard the Lion-Hearted, were buried at Fontevraud. Their tombs, above, can be visited in the abbey church.

After the French Revolution, the abbey became a state prison. It housed vagrants, petty thieves and revolutionaries.

Now restored and handsomely landscaped, Fontevraud is a pilgrimage site for Loire Valley travelers, especially those who arrive on bikes.

—Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Susan Spano]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 9:57 am by Susan Spano and is filed under Europe, France. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.