Founded in 1118 and restored to its medieval glory a century ago, Abbaye de Fontenay offers a fascinating glimpse of the austere, serene surroundings in which Cistercian monks lived lives of contemplation, prayer and manual labour. Set in a bucolic wooded valley along a stream called Ru de Fontenay, the abbey, a Unesco World Heritage Site, includes an unadorned Romanesque church, a barrel-vaulted monks’ dormitory, landscaped gardens and the first metallurgical factory in Europe with a forge from 1220. Guided tours are in French with printed information in six languages.
