Abbaye Notre-Dame du Val

Mériel

Nestling in a wooded valley on the banks of the Sausseron, the abbey of Notre-Dame du Val was founded in 1125 by monks from the abbey of La Cour-Dieu, near Orléans: it is the second oldest Cistercian foundation in Île-de-France, only seven years after Preuilly. In 1136, the lord Ansel I of L'Isle gave the lands of the "Val Sainte-Marie" that allowed the community to settle properly, a gift confirmed the following year by King Louis VII himself. Under its first abbot, Thibaut, the abbey prospered for two centuries, receiving royal favours and numerous donations, before the Hundred Years' War brought it to deep ruin. Held in commendam from 1507, it gradually lost its monastic fervour until the suppression of the religious orders in 1790: the last monk, Dom Nicolas de Sainte-Marie, left the place that year. Sold as national property, it very nearly disappeared altogether when, in 1845, its stones began to be torn out to build the Batignolles district of Paris. Saved just in time, the monks' building — one of the finest medieval Cistercian dormitories preserved in France — and the north gallery of the cloister were listed as historic monuments between 1947 and 1965. Maintained today by an association of volunteers, the abbey of Le Val remains a haven of Romanesque silence thirty kilometres from Paris, little known and yet intact.

Getting there : Owned by an association (Les Amis de l'abbaye du Val); visits during the Journées du patrimoine (heritage open days) and by appointment

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

Ambient sound