ENROUTE TO SERIGNY

This morning our GPS took us through every possible country lane imaginable (or so it seemed) to get to Flavigny-sur-Ozerain.

This is another one of  France's most beautiful villages & was the location for the film 'Chocolat' starring Juliette Binoche & Johnny Depp. It sits high on a hill top surrounded by stone walls & magnificent views.

We enjoyed wandering around looking at the old buildings rich with character.  This is the shop used as the chocolate shop in the film.  Sadly it is an empty shell.  What a fantastic business opportunity for someone, at least it would give visitors on Monday something to visit aside from an aniseed lolly shop & dark public toilets!!

After sitting outside enjoying the somewhat rare sunlight over lunch, we drove on to the Abbaye de Fontenay.  We passed by so many paddocks of these beautiful white cattle.  Jeff slowed down so that I could FINALLY get a decent photo.  I collect cows & I have been looking for a white one to add to my collection to represent this region of the world on my cow shelf.  Alas....every colour combo of cow seems to be available except white!  The search continues.

Fontenay Abbaey is one of the oldest Cistercian Abbeys & it is from here that monks left for North Yorkshire to found Fountains Abbey.  This order of monks valued isolation, self sufficiency & simplicity.  Consequently there was very little decoration on the buildings.  The monks had a forge here & were known as the Ironmonger Monks!  They also had a steady supply of trout apparently!

My favourite part were the cloisters.  Such beautifully precise arches opening up onto a lawn & garden area.  This is where the monks read, studied & went about aspects of their work.

The grounds & buildings were well cared for & beautiful.  Even in their bare state they gave an impression of what the lives of those monks must have been like.  There were a few decorative pieces, & I particularly liked the glazed tiles.
 It was a lovely place to stop enroute to Tonnerre & Serigny.  Predictably, the GPS took us through all the remaining country lanes in Burgundy to get there!  Perhaps it is also predictable that the minute we arrived in Serigny it started raining again....& hasn't stopped in the past 6 hours! Sigh!