Chartreuse Notre-Dame de Bonnefoy

Le Béage

At 1,310 metres, below Mont Mézenc, Bonnefoy was the highest charterhouse in the whole order of Saint Bruno. Founded in 1156 on land given by Guillaume de Fay, lord of the Mézenc, it is one of the first mountain charterhouses: the white monks sought there precisely what the Ardèche plateau offers without stint — silence, snow and solitude. The history of the place is a long lesson in obstinacy. Plundered in 1459 by mercenary bands, the charterhouse was taken by treachery in 1569, during the Wars of Religion, and its prior massacred. A fire devastated it in 1653; it was raised up once more. Between 1722 and 1733, the Carthusians rebuilt the church and the buildings anew in the taste of the day, a project still unfinished when the Revolution dispersed the community. Around 1840 the stones were sold and scattered among the surrounding farms. What remains today, standing in the meadows, are the entrance portico, the bell tower and the prior's house with its Louis XIV panelling, under restoration since 2004 with the support of the Fondation du patrimoine. Seven great screen-printed mirrors by the artist Stéphane Thidet now play with the ruins and the sky of the Mézenc, extending in their own way the contemplation of the monks. The panorama over the plateau of Le Béage, a stone's throw from Mont Gerbier-de-Jonc, is in itself reason enough for the walk.

Getting there : From Le Béage, D377 towards Les Estables; car park and information panel near the ruins. Site partly private: exteriors visible all year round, interior during the summer guided tours.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound