JUMIEGES — 18 MILES
Jumièges is a tiny hamlet along the Seine that offers you the opportunity to take a nice stroll along the river. But people don’t come here for the town’s river, the cobble-stoned streets or the half-timber houses. They’re attracted by the abbey ruins. These have been described as the best France has to offer — incredible, extraordinary, even romantic. They say there’s a magical quality when you hear the wind rustle through the trees and you marvel at the vaults that have been wide-open to the skies since the French Revolution.
A little history — this Benedictine abbey was founded in 654 by Saint Philibert and housed around 2000 monks and lay brothers. As it was quite wealthy, it was attacked regularly by the Vikings during the 9th and 10th centuries. It was rebuilt in the 11th century and again became wealthy, as well as a major intellectual center. The abbey again came under difficult times in the 16th century with the Wars of Religion between the Catholics and Protestants, and then again with the French Revolution, which spelled its end as a living religious institution. At about that time, the abbey was purchased by a merchant who wanted the stones for other construction projects. Vandalizing of the abbey finally ended in the middle of the 19th century and eventually came under the protection of the government in 1946, leaving it in the state it is today.
To learn more, visit en.normandie-tourisme.fr
