Abbaye de Villelongue in the Laguedoc

We stumbled across this beautiful abbey in Saint Martin le Vieil, and it was absolutely stunning.  It's a privately owned 12th century monument, the family bought it in 1916 and still live there today.  Fancy having all this in your back yard!

It was a blisteringly hot day and just sitting under the shady trees in the cloisters was divine.

 

 

The stone table in this picture was huge, not sure if the monks used it for picnics!

 

 

The monks used these stairs every day to go to chapel for prayers.  You can see the wear in the stone from many centuries of use.  I climbed these steps, following in their footsteps.

 

A shady niche in the ruined church.

 

Where does this magnificent door go?

Beautiful stonework and windows.  There was no glass left now but once it must have been magnificent.

 

 

These carved faces were in very good condition.  They were once inside the church, but as half of the building is missing, are now exposed to the elements.

It seems the monks were never short of wine.  We saw in some villages these huge barrel fronts used as front doors, just like hobbit houses!

 



 

Abbaye de Villelongue is such a tranquil place, it was very nice just to sit there in the shady ruins of the cloisters and imagine what it must have been like eight hundred years ago.