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CIAO ADRIANO

The Cistercian Royal Abbey of L'Épau (Le Mans)

Early September 2007

THE ROUTE TO DATE WITH MAPS OF FRANCE AND OF ITS MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE ROADS

Back to Ciao Adriano Le Mans Overview

The Cistercian Abbey of L'Épau, set in a large and attractive park on the edge of Le Mans, was founded by Queen Berengaria, who had the misfortune to be married to Richard I of England.

It is a pain to access and when you get there you find an uninspiring mix of construction site and function space which does not rate a visit and won't even when the construction stuff is over.  There is a large unatmospheric uncistercian church, an OK chapter house (which does contain the only interesting feature of the site - a skilfully restored gisant of Berengaria - below) and dormitory (right).  No cloister and not one fun capital or carved face that we could see.

Even in France where everything got so destructively knocked around, there's much more interesting Cistercian stuff to be seen.

The dormitory being set up for a dinner function

Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status

All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com