Abbaye de Barbeau

Fontaine-le-Port

It was King Louis VII of France himself who founded the abbey of Barbeau in 1147, on the banks of the Seine not far from Melun. The sovereign grew so deeply attached to it that he chose to be buried there at his death, in 1180, making Barbeau, for a time, a royal necropolis in the heart of the forest of Seine-et-Marne. A delightful local legend claims that a fisherman one day pulled from the river a barbel – the fish that gives the place its name – in whose belly glittered a diamond, or perhaps a precious ring, lost there by Saint Loup, Archbishop of Sens. True or not, the story says much about the place the abbey held in the imagination of those who lived along the Seine. Sadly, Barbeau did not survive the outrages of time: entirely razed in the 19th century, nothing remains of it today but a simple icehouse, an incongruous and solitary relic of a royal monastery once thronged with monks and pilgrims. The estate that still bears its name now houses a park, a restaurant, a riding club and a farm – a calling far removed from the contemplative life, but one that perpetuates, in its own way, the place's attachment to land and water.

Getting there : On the banks of the Seine, about 8 km south-east of Melun, private estate (Domaine de Barbeau)

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

Ambient sound