Jumieges

Abbey ruins in Jumieges, France. Photo by Katie Botkin.

A Letter from Katie Botkin in France:

Shortly before 11 a.m., we make it to the ruins of a Benedictine abbey in Jumièges, just in time for a guided tour in French. Pierre says this is good, and now I’m sure to get the real story rather than authoritative guesses from him. This is uncharacteristically modest of him.

The French guide tells the four of us on the tour that this abbey was first constructed in the Carolingian period. It became subsequently so rich that it was burned and pillaged constantly by the invading Vikings in the ninth century, to the point that it was abandoned until the region stabilized. In 1067, the church was consecrated anew. The Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, freshly successful from his own invasion of England, attended the consecration. The abbey flourished until the French Revolution, when it was ransacked again and partially pulled down for its stone. This, however, made it “the most beautiful ruin in France,” according to visiting authors from the Romantic period.

The guide tells us to take a walk up to the Abbot’s residence to get a good view of the ruins and the surrounding park. Pierre and I do so, and in the quiet misty-gray of the sunless noon, we look down on the once-great property, now deserted of people. Somewhere, a bell is tolling the hour.