Among the various places we visit during a trip to France, we often hear that this or that city is one of those “Most Beautiful Villages in France”. Under this label hides an association of law dating back to 1901, created forty years ago to bring together all the small French towns with a certain character and just waiting to be discovered…
Today head to Fontevraud-l’Abbaye in the Maine-et-Loire department.
A village but above all an abbey
Welcome to one of the last two “The most beautiful villages in France” awarded from the 2024 edition Located 15 km from Saumur, this Maine-et-Loire municipality of 1,500 inhabitants has just joined the label like 177 others across France.
Normal after all for this town which hosts one of the most important and recognized abbey complexes in Europe. To the point that we sometimes forget that Fontevraud is also a village with some ancient buildings, its Saint-Michel church and its chapels, as well as some alleys where you can stroll peacefully. Worth seeing, although it is true that we come here first and foremost for its royal abbey.
Founded in 1101 by the Benedictines, what with its 13 hectares quickly became one of the largest in Christian Europe, it was then transformed into a necropolis by the Plantagenet dynasty, which further increased its fame. At least until its decline began in the 13th centuryAnd century that will continue until the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era that will then change the building from the status of an abbey to that of a… prison. Which it remained until 1963.
It was only in the 1970s that Fontevraud found a new aura. First as a cultural center then, in 2000, when it was included by UNESCO among the “cultural sites of the Loire Valley”.
Today the monastic complex consists of the two remaining monasteries of the original four. The most important, that of Grand-Moûtier, is open to the public and offers in particular the visit of the abbey church, the Saint-Benoît chapel, the cloister and several other buildings.
Added to this is the place’s vocation as a hotel residence but also, since 2021, as a museum of modern art where it is worth stopping to see, among others, works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Juan Gris and other great names…