The first stop this morning was back at the cathedral of St. Pierre to try to identify a 12th century stained glass window of Henry, Eleanor and their four surviving sons. As Eleanor donated the money to start building the church, I guess it is only right that her family is commemorated in a crucifixion scene. At any rate, the colors of the old glass are magnificent and after searching around-it was "at the end", it was found.
Next stop was the one church not open yesterday, St Jean's Baptiste. Built under the Merovingian kings about 500, on the site of an old Roman domus (house) the property is now controlled by the French government, the better to preserve the amazing frescoes inside. Although signs say not photos, the German tour group which came in right behind us either could to read the French or did not care. As the were snapping, I got in a few too. The Baptistre which was used for baptisms also stores a few stone graves and lots of partial decorative stone work. All in all, very impressive.
Then to pick up the car and onto Fontevraud. Only one small turn missed so made pretty good time driving through the farmland where the sunflowers had died but we're not yet harvested making for fields of brown with a smattering of green and yellow to compliment the cloudy skies. We drove past Mirabeau, where the town walls are still standing although not much else from the time King John raced to rescue his mother who was being besieged by her grandson, Arthur of Brittany. John promptly imprisoned the youth and shortly thereafter tortured him to dead-a death that had repercussions in England and Wales over the next half century.
Finally to Fontevraud, a rebuilt monastic city which means when it was founded a thousand years ago, it was not just for educated priests and nuns, people from all walks of life were welcome to live here. The hotel is in the old Lazard house-hospital for the lepers but as this place went from a monestary to a prison to now an art city, everything has been completely rebuilt. The founder of this place Robert put women in charge-a huge break in the 'natural' order of the year 1100. Run by an abbess, this community attracted Queen Eleanor, when she wanted to retire from public life. She wanted it to be the burial place of all the Plantagenets, although today only the tombs of four remain. Henry II was first Count of Anjou, a French city about two hours from here so it was logical to Eleanor that the kings of England, Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine, Counts of Poitiers, Touraine and Anjou should be buried here on French soil.
Henry II was buried here first, followed by Richard the Lionhearted, then Eleanor and finally King John's wife. Isabelle of Angouleme.
After settling in, I began what anyone who knows my love of this period knows was a race around the "city" to find everything. Now it is time to just sit in the garden and read and write.
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