The stunning complex of the Abbaye de Fontevraud, 13km southeast of Saumur on bus #16 (2–4 daily; 30min), is a key site in French and English history because of its role as the burial place of both countries' monarchs (daily: June–Sept 9am–6.30pm; April, May & Oct 10am–6pm; Nov–March 10am–5.30pm; €5.50). The community was established in 1099 as both a nunnery and a monastery with an abbess in charge – an unconventional move, even if the post was filled solely by queens and princesses. The remaining buildings date from the twelfth century and are immense, built as they were to house and separate not only the nuns and monks but also the sick, lepers and repentant prostitutes. There were originally five separate institutions, of which three still gracefully stand in Romanesque solidity. Used as a prison from the Revolution until 1963, its most famous inmate was the writer Jean Genet.The abbey church is an awe-inspiring space, not least for its emptiness, though the restorers could be accused of being a little overzealous in their cleaning work. This was the burial ground of the Plantagenet kings, and four tombstone effigies remain: Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, who died here, their son Richard the Lionheart and daughter-in-law Isabelle of Angoulême, King John's queen. Carved as they were at the time of their deaths – instead of being almost imaginary characters, as in the stories told at so many of the Loire châteaux – their deathly figures are eerily lifelike. The strange domed roof, the great cream-coloured columns of the choir and the graceful capitals of the nave add to the atmosphere. After the magnificent cloisters adjoining the church, you pass through an exquisitely carved doorway to enter the chapterhouse, decorated with sixteenth-century murals, to which many of the abbesses had their portraits added. The refectory, on the opposite side of the cloisters to the church, is another vast impressive space with Gothic vaulting surmounting the Romanesque walls. All the cooking for the religious community, which would have numbered several hundred, was done in the – now perfectly restored – Romanesque kitchen, an octagonal building as extraordinary from the outside (with its 21 spiky chimneys) as it is from within. The abbey is now the Centre Culturel de l'Ouest (CCO), the cultural centre for western France, and one of Europe's most important centres of medieval archeology, and is used for a great many activities, from concerts to lectures, art exhibitions and theatre. Programme details are available at the abbey (tel 02.41.51.73.52, www.abbaye-fontevraud.com) or from the Saumur tourist office.
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