L'Abbaye Fontevraud and American Thanksgiving in France

The Church

The Church

 Last Sunday Michele and I took a road trip to L'Abbaye Fontevraud, a monastery and abbey constructed during the 12th century about 45 minutes away from Tours. At one point in the Middle Ages it was a combined monastery, housing both men and women. As you could imagine, at the time, the abbot in charge received a lot of criticism for this blended monastic community. Near the end of the French Revolution, Napoleon transformed the monastery into a prison which remained until 1963. There is a large church, cloister, chapter meeting rooms, dormitories, a refectory, and a modern hotel/restaurant in the building which once housed lepers.

I'd been wanting to visit a medieval monastery for the longest time because of my interest in religious life during the Middle Ages. Michele and I easily spent 2 hours at the abbey, making sure not to miss anything and following along with the personal audio guides. When I visit these old establishments, like the Gothic cathedrals and medieval castles, it becomes so easy for me to imagine living during the Middle Ages. The combination of the cold and rain and the few number of tourists at the abbey made it even easier to imagine a medieval life there.

Michele and I also stopped at a little cafe nearby, owned and operated by a cute English woman. The cafe was overstuffed with gaudy antiques and trinkets from England, but it still had charm. On the way home we stopped at Les Candes Saint Martin, an old church where the bishop of Tours, St Martin, died and remains buried today. We arrived there late in the afternoon and with the cloud cover and dusk approaching, it was very dark inside, only a few candles lit to illuminate the beautiful interior.

It was really wonderful to spend the day with Michele. She is such a wonderful, beautiful person and we get along so well. Even though her daughter is my age, I don't seem to notice the age difference between us because we have such a good time together. We've gotten in the habit of mixing English and French, switching back and forth, not noticing when we transition from one language to the other.

Panoramic View

The Church

Interior Courtyard

Monday and Tuesday at school I didn't work with two of my usual classes, the older 3eme classes, so that I could spend time with the youngest 6eme class. I really enjoyed working with the younger kids (we talked about Halloween) because they are so sweet and fun. I saw many of my 3eme students at school who said hello to me in the hallways and asking when I would be seeing them again. 

Thursday and Friday lessons went alright, but I had one difficult class, and unfortunately I had to send two students out of the room. I felt badly about having to do so, but the kids were interfering with the other students' opportunities to learn and participate. 

Thursday morning we woke up to a "White Thanksgiving". Snow! (Although, it melted as soon as it hit the ground.) Thursday evening I celebrated Thanksgiving dinner at Ryan's house.

Thanksgiving at Ryan's

Everyone prepared a dish to bring and we ended up having quite the feast: roasted turkey and potatoes, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach casserole, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, bread, salad, and vin chaud (warm wine). We were a mixture of Americans, Australians, English, and French. It was a really lovely get-together which I was grateful for since it was my first Thanksgiving away from home. When I got back to my apartment in the evening, I phoned home and got to speak to all of my family gathered at my house. In the end, it was a bitter-sweet Thanksgiving, but one I was happy to experience in France.

This weekend, the city of Tours has turned on the Christmas lights all over the city, including the lights on the giant tree outside the Hotel de Ville. There is a Christmas market lining the boulevard with log cabin store facades and a merry-go-round, as well as another large Christmas tree and ferris wheel by the river. In short, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :)