L’Abbey de Bonnevaux - A Centre for Peace

In the final days of this trip we have had the privilege of visiting and staying at Bonnevaux, near Poitiers in France. 

Bonnevaux is the international centre of the World Community for Christian Meditation, and home to the contemplative community that prays, works and studies in the spirit of the Rule of St Benedict. The spirit of silence is at the centre of life here at Bonnevaux.

At the heart of its prayer life, the community meditates in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (fourth century), following the teachings of John Main (1926 - 1982), a Benedictine monk and founder of The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM). 

Here’s the community house where we were warmly welcomed and accommodated. It was lovely to see Father Laurence Freeman and other members of the community we have come to know over the years of our involvement with the WCCM.

From the 12th century till the French Revolution this was a Cistercian Monastery.





After the Revolution it was owned by the same family for over one hundred and fifty years, before being purchased in the 1960s by a couple of Parisian designers! The WCCM has now bought it and it’s being lovingly restored and returned to its monastic roots. The large grounds have never been industrially farmed, and it is home to a significant eco-system of plants, insects, birds and wildlife.

The winding stone staircase to our room. Some treads were so worn down by the monks of centuries’ past that they’ve had to be patched.



And the view from a window upstairs.

A little further up the slope from this main house is the centre where retreatants eat and sleep.

Here’s another view of the retreat centre, and the barn beside it where meditation happens (three or four times each day) and where larger groups gather for teaching and reflection. Both buildings are sensitively restored and beautifully appointed.

Some of the trees here we planted before the French Revolution. This London Plane tree is old and majestic - the trunk is enormous...

and the canopy is glorious.

There is a garden where veggies are grown and chickens raised. And part of the property has also been given to sustainable farming. It was inspiring to see and we will come home with some ideas for our humble veggie patch.

This wooded path leads around to the lake.



There are places to pause.

And other ways to wander.

Some of Bonnevaux’s feathered and furry residents.

Two Musk Rats washing in the stream. The community also describes them as Beaver Rats. There’s a family of five in residence!

Buildings old and new.

A wood carpeted with cyclamens...

and a glade with views and pews.

Our time here has been a delight - a warm and interesting group of people (mostly young!), a regular rhythm of prayer and silence, and simple but delicious food. It’s been a fantastic way to draw our time in Europe to a close and ready ourselves to come back into the community of Benedictus and our family and friends.

Tomorrow we get the train from Poitiers to the airport in Paris, and we fly out on Wednesday morning - full of gratitude for our time away and the many wonderful people who have enabled it and with whom we’ve connected along the way. 

Buen Camino,

Neil and Sarah

Breizh - Bretagne - Brittany

After five wonderful days in Jersey, it was time to pack the boat and sail back to France!

Actually, we boarded a large ferry last Saturday morning with the car (Gerald and Anne’s ageing but majestic Jag!) loaded for a week of wandering in Brittany (‘Bretagne’ in French, ‘Breizh’ in Breton). We’ve been struck by the use of bilingual French and Breton signage in this area. 

Our first destination was Hilguy (a revived manor house with surrounding cottages, set deep in the western Brittany countryside amid forests of oak and chestnut). It’s now used as a hotel and gives access to many different villages and towns on the nearby coast - a delightful, peaceful place. Here’s a shot of us enjoying a lovely seafood lunch at Concarneau, an old walled town surrounded by water.

The main centre in this area is Quimper (‘Kemper’ in Breton), and here we are enjoying a coffee in the city square beside the enormous cathedral. This whole region, the most westerly edge of France, is called Finistere (meaning ‘end of land’, ‘end of the earth’!). 

A feature of our time here has been stopping to picnic along the way. We pick up a couple of baguettes, some incredible cheese and pate de compagne, and have ourselves a feast! Note the table cloth - with Annie’s touch, everything is done with style!!

Of course, all these fine ‘touches’ require a bit of space, and with four of us in the car, things have been a little squeezy!

In these last couple of days before we depart, we are staying in a converted farm house not far from the river Rance estuary, about 20kms from St Malo. 

We are surrounded by fields and corpses of trees. 

On our walking explorations, we came across this beautiful pond.





The track then led into a wood, carpeted with flowers.

And down to the estuary.



Yesterday, we went to Concale - the oyster capital of France.



The At low tide, the oyster beds are uncovered and tractors go constantly to and fro towing trailers loaded with oysters. In the distance, you can see the famous Le Mont St Michel, an abbey perched atop a tiny island of rock off the coast of Normandy. 

Annie sampled the oysters at lunch and they arrived served on a bed of vigorous seaweed.

Out time here is nearly over. Tomorrow we catch the train to Poitiers to spend our final two days at Bonnevaux, the international centre for the World Community for Christian Meditation. We are so grateful to Annie and Gerald for their kindness and generosity in giving us such a memorable experience in Brittany. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing our time with them in this wonderful region. 

Buen Camino,

Neil and Sarah

A Walk on the Wild Side

Here’s the view that greeted us as we began our walk yesterday on the northern side of Jersey.

On the horizon of this photo you can see three of the other Channel Islands - Sark is most obvious, then the little bump to the left is Herm, and further left the vague outline of Guernsey. We could actually see Alderney further to the right but it was too distant to show up in a photo. And further around again, we could see the coast of Normandy stretching on for miles.

We caught a bus from Jersey’s capital, St Helier, to Devil’s Hole - a collapsed sea cave on the north coast.

This is the wilder and more windswept  side of the island, less populated, and steeper, ringed by a cliff walk. Much of this area has been declared a National Trust.Reserve. Fortified with a packet each of curried egg sandwiches together with lashings of shortbread generously supplied by Neil’s Mum Annie, we set off on an expedition to explore it!

This was the closest creature to a heffalump we encountered.

The birdlife is abundant. As well as herrings and gulls, choughs have been reintroduced 100 years since they were last seen on the island. We saw small hawks hovering over the gorse and bracken, and we startled a large eagle which rose up from shrubbery as we passed close by.

This is the little fishing village of Bonne Nuit, with boats increasingly stranded as the tide recedes. At the other end of this bay, we came across a little nursing home tucked into the hill and overlooking the sea - it was the most beautiful and peaceful setting for a nursing home we’ve ever seen!

Occasionally the path dipped inland a little, on this occasion passing by this ancient standing stone.

Jersey has a ‘Tardis-like’ feel to it. In area it’s tiny (9 by 5 miles), but from the inside it feels much bigger. There are so many distinctive small landscapes, from the coast to wooded valleys and numerous villages, farms, country estates, reservoirs and lane ways. 

Just to the right of where Sarah is walking is a farm growing Jersey’s ‘finest tea’. And a bit further on, fields with recently harvested and much sought after Jersey Royal potatoes.

We dipped back out again.

Eventually, on reaching Bouley Bay, we followed the road out to the village of Trinity. We’d hope to fit in a quiet ale at the Trinity Arms, but alas the bus came and we wound our way back through a maze of lanes, hedgerows, fields and villages - past the Jersey Zoo which Neil’s grandfather Roderick helped set up with Gerald Durrell. All in all there are twelve ‘parishes’ in Jersey, each with their own beautiful stone parish church, pub and village green. 

We’re in St Clement and then there’s St Helier, St Brelard, St Ouen, St Lawrence, St Saviour, St Peter, St John, St Martin, St Mary, Trinity and Grouville. 

We have one more day here before we pack into Gerald and Anne’s car, and catch the ferry back to Brittany. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and we look forward to our final opportunity to mooch around here and enjoy the view from the house. We might even sample a ploughman’s lunch at Anne and Gerald’s local, The Seymour Inn!

Buen Camino,

Neil and Sarah