Mortemer Abbey

The abbey, now a fabulous museum of history and legends. Morte-Mer, a marshy valley nestled at the edge of a dense forest. Henry Beauclerc, the Conqueror's son, used to come here to hunt game or trap eels. He died there—on his way to Paradise. Imagine! To breathe his last just a stone's throw from the abbey he founded in 1134. And what an abbey it was! The most important in the duchy. The monks lived according to the Cistercian ideal, dividing their time between prayer and managing an estate rich enough for them to live in religious self-sufficiency, far from worldly temptations.

Yet the centuries caught up with them. Nearly 900. And no more monks. But such marvelous remains: a dovecote, sections of a church, a cloister wing, a large dwelling rebuilt in the 17th century... Please leave your analytical mind at the gatehouse! Here, the stones are living memory. The evanescent silhouette of the White Lady brushes against them, while the memory of the monks murdered during the Revolution lingers.

On moonlit nights, when evening veils the land in a halo of coolness, don't forget your sweater, in case you feel a chill.