Europe April/May # 33
French Countryside
(Near Montpellier - Sete)
We've been to several French abbeys - most have been in a state of disrepair. This one was not. 
The abbey is located near Montpellier (South-Central France)
The abbey started out as a Benedictine monastery in 1139. It's amazing that this place is still standing and functioning - more so for events and tourism
Architects designed the side columns where we are standing to be larger in size as compared to the the columns toward the front which would be thinner. The idea was to create an optical illusion making the building seem larger than it actually is. A wedding party was being set up when we arrived. Not a bad place to have a party!
When looking carefully around the building there were unexpected photo ops in all directions
As a source of income, years ago the abbey was in the wine business. Each barrel can hold about 65,000 gallons of wine
"Silence" was paramount for the monks that lived, work and worshipped hundreds of years ago
Jerry's touching history
Since there was no electricity, the architects used natural light as much as they could to hi-lite specific areas of the abbey
A sense of peacefulness continues to remain throughout the facility
Only a few of the many stained glass windows remain. Most were destroyed when the abbey was ransacked multiple times
There are pretty floors throughout the the abbey
At first we thought this was some sort of torture device. In actuality, it is a fireplace in one of the main rooms
Also, many different birds were chirping away when we were visiting. It was quite a wonderful, natural sound
There was a lot of thought that went into the building's design
The abbey has a line of wines that it sells. We did a wine-tasting. Overall, to our taste, the wines were poor at best
When we initially signed up many months ago, we weren't sure if this would be a good tour Not so. The guide was very good. Combined with the town of Pezenas (previous blog) it was a great day
Although we've been using Euros for years, it never occurred to us to learn about the currency designs. For instance, each European Union country has its own unique design on the One Euro. For instance, from top to bottom, the coins represent Netherlands, Germany and Austria (Mozart). There are twenty-three distinct designs where as our "dollar" always has Washington on one side
Several times a week the ship will have an elaborate set up using food as the focal point. There is always a pleasant surprise to see what the crew will create.
