Sunday 11th December 2016

Today was overcast and quite misty at times. We made the short journey to Fontevraud Abbey. It cost 11 euros each to get in but was worth it.

This is the interior of the Abbey Church.

It is the burial place of the Plantagenet Royalty who ruled England and France in the 12th Century.

Here is the tomb of Eleanor of Aquitaine 1122-1204 - Queen of England and France. She specifically asked for her effigy to be portrayed reading a book!

Here is King Henry 11 of England and France 1133-1189

And here is Richard 1 (the Lionheart) also King of England and France 1157-1199 next to Isabelle of  Angouleme 1188 -1246 wife of King John 1166-1216.

The abbey has a magnificent cloister.

This is the interior of the Chapter House.

There are several exceptionally fine frescoes within the chapter house which portray various biblical stories,

This amazing building housed the Abbey kitchens. To me the architecture is reminiscent of the great Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi but it is from a much earlier time. Is it possible that Gaudi knew of this building?

Here's inside the kitchens looking up. There is a hole in the top of the tower and at the top of each pinnacle! 

From Fontevraud Abbey we moved on south to the town of Thouars which we had visited a couple of years ago at about this time of year. On that occasion all the Christmas decorations were adorned with red shoes! This time there was not a red shoe in sight - just parcels with presumably nothing in them. 

Having satisfied ourselves that the red shoes incident was just a one off we traveled south to the City of Noirt. We had a look at the Aire de Camping Cars there but were unimpressed - very crowded and pokey with it.

We moved on a few kilometres west to the town of Benet where we are staying tonight in the car park next to the Intermarche supermarket. That will be handy for some shopping in the morning.

Today we traveled 95 miles (153 kilometres). The GPS coordinates here are N46.36899 W0.59486