We were treated to a very up close and personal tour of the Abbey and grounds. A surprising fact about this place is that all inhabitants contribute financially to the monastery by practising a craft, like brewing beer! Beer is one of this monastery's income...More

It is a very special, beautiful abbey - Benedictine. It is a working abbey, so not all of it is open to the public, unless you want to go on a retreat. Worth a diversion

What an interesting place this is. It is a working Benedictine monastery where the monks live in silence. We were shown round by a tubby, jolly little friar, frère Lucien. He told us about his life at the monastery, where they do picture restoration and...More

This is a very interesting site. The monks make beer and do art restoration. A very interesting combination and if the artists also work in the brewery, the restoration could suffer! Fortunately, they are only allowed to drink on Sundays. The buildings are from various...More

As part of our “Normandy Abbeys Route” excursion, we visited the Fontenelle Abbey, a 7th century working monastery with renovations in progress. We were told that if we were lucky, we could hear the monks chanting, but that was not our case. We did, however,...More

On the day my wife and I visited Saint-Wandrille, there was no morning guided tour, so we were left to exploring on our own. The old abbey is under re-construction, so there is a lot of that that is covered with plastic and scaffolding. Down...More

Sainte Wandrille is an abbey with monks still living in it, but we could not see much without guided tour, we were a bit in hurry., and it seemed largely under restoration. It contained a church with wooden roof, but without much else.

The architecture is the one of a palace. Enter a small chapel and a church. Admire the old trees, the silence and the spiritually

Any individual who devotes their life to a very strict and rigid lifestyle is a better person than me. This Abbey also informs you how cathedrals were built by very current restoration. Stopped here on a day tour while on a river cruise. A must...More

This Abbey is visited by the majority of the River Cruise ships stopping at nearby Caudebec-En-Caux. Although the Monks take a vow of silence the guide Lucian more than makes up for it with his animated explanations. He told us of life inside the monastery...More