THE LOIRE - France 2014 - page 613

Visiting the Abbey: Thankstotheaudioguidesforadultsandkids,thisabbeyiswell
presented for English speakers.
Your visit begins in the bright, 12th-century, Romanesque abbey church. Sit on the
steps, savor the ethereal light and the cavernous setting, and gaze down the nave. At the
end of it are four painted sarcophagi belonging to Eleanor of Aquitaine; her second hus-
band, Henry II, the first of England's Plantagenet kings; their son Richard the Lionheart;
and his sister-in-law. These are the tops of the sarcophagi only. Even though we know
these Plantagenets were buried here (because they gave lots of money to the abbey), no
one knows the fate of the actual bodies.
You'll leave the church through the right transept into the cloister. This was the cen-
ter of the abbey, where the nuns read, exercised, checked their email, and washed their
hands. While visiting the abbey, remember that monastic life was extremely simple: noth-
ing but prayers, readings, and work. Daily rations were a loaf of bread and a half-liter of
wine per person, plus soup and smoked fish.
Next you'll find the chapter house , where the nuns' meetings took place, as well as
the community room —the only heated room in the abbey, where the nuns embroidered
linen. In rooms leading off the cloister, Renaissance paintings feature portraits of the wo-
men in black habits who ran this abbey.
The nearby refectory, built to feed 400 silent monks at a time, was later the prison
work yard, where inmates built wooden chairs.
Your abbey visit ends in the unusual, honeycombed, 12th-century kitchen, with five
bays covered by 18 chimneys to evacuate smoke. It likely served as a smokehouse for fish
farmed in the abbey ponds. Abbeys like this were industrious places, but focused on self-
sufficiency rather than trade.
Finish your visit by wandering through the abbey's medicinal gardens out back.
Near Fontevraud: Mushroom Caves
For an unusual fungus find close to the abbey of Fontevraud, visit the mushroom caves
called Le Saut aux Loups. France is the world's third-largest producer of mushrooms
(after the US and China), so mushrooms matter. Climb to a cliff ledge and enter 16 chilly
rooms bored into limestone to discover everything about the care and nurturing of mush-
rooms. You'll see them raised in planters, plastic bags, logs, and straw bales, and you'll
learn about their incubation, pasteurization, and fermentation. Abandoned limestone quar-
ries like this are fertile homes for mushroom cultivation, and have made the Loire Valley
the mushroom capital of France since the 1800s. You'll ogle at the weird shapes and never
take your 'shrooms for granted again. The growers harvest a ton of mushrooms a month in
thesecaves;shitakesaretheirmostimportantcrop.PickuptheEnglishbookletandfollow