Easter Monday is a national holiday in France (yippee!). Dominique invited me over for lunch and an undecided upon outing in the afternoon. We (Dominique, Hervé, and i) ended up going to Bec-Hellouin, a village in Eure (the department on the southern side of the Seine) where there is a Benedictine monastery.
The abbey has a great 15th century belltower, while the rest of the older buildings, including a huge church the same length as Notre Dame de Paris, have not survived. The areas where the monks live, pray, and do whatever it is monks do all day were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is a chateau next door that has been given to the abbey, and the monks use part of it as a ceramics studio. They sell their ceramics in the little gift shop on the grounds (click here to see examples of their work).
After stopping in a cafe for a drink, we started heading back
toward Lillebonne. Hervé decided we should stop in Pont-Audemer to have a look around. He claims it is known as the Venice of Normandy. I thought he was joking when he said it, but it turns out they have a few canals.
It's a cute little town with lots of half-timbered buildings and a big church. Apparently, the parish ran out of money while building this enormous, gothic church, so it's a bit lop-sided. It also has a crêperie built into it, but i have no idea if that was a fund-raising idea.
After that, we took a ferry across the Seine, and i got home at about 8:00. Have i mentioned that i hate daylight savings time (summer time for you Brits/Euros)? I hate thinking i have lots of time left in the day, because it's so light out, but it turns out it will soon be bedtime.
P.S. As always, you can find more pictures on Flickr: Abbey & Pont-Audemer
