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| What Villers Abbey used to look like... |
Belgium has tons of abbeys, many of which are in ruins. We heard about one called Villers Abbey, an old Benedictine Monestary which is an easy hour drive from our house in the Waloon part of the country, so we decided to check it out on Saturday. As we approached the abbey, we knew we were in for a treat. The weather was fantastic that day, hovering in the high fifties with a good deal of sun. Walking through the visitor center and into the courtyard of the Abbey was like walking into a different world; one in which humans and the modern world they have created did not exist. Remnants of the massive church (the dome was still in tact and it had to be 200 feet from floor to occulus) which was started in 1195, the brothers' quarters, the kitchen, the stables, and most importantly (after the church), the brewery were all there but lay in ruins with ivy overtaking much of it. But the complete and utter lack of any modernity coupled with the tranquil setting made it feel like we were on a different planet. Most stiking were artists renderings of what the different structures would have looked like. Simple yet elegant quarters for the brothers and a towering church confounded us. In the absence of computer aided design, cranes, backhoes, bulldozers, and other modern tools how could a bunch of monks build such large and awe inspiring structures? That is the truly amazing thing about being over here. Not only are the churches and basilicas and castles we see on a daily basis incredibly beautiful. But the fact that they were built four, five, or six centuries ago without modern tools is equally, if not more, amazing!
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| An aerial view of it today... |
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Monks' dormitories
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Rendering of Monks' dormitories
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Dormitories today
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| Tomb |
Part of the gorgeous ceiling of Cathedral |
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The boys loved being out here for the day. While there was so much history on display, it was not in a museum, so they could be as loud as they wanted to be (within reason) and best of all, climb and run on the remnants of the walls.
After sufficiently exploring the grounds, we went out to the car and grabbed a picnic basket and blanket and laid around for a while eating a nice lunch until the rain started to come down.
After lunch we made our way across the street from the abbey to a nice little out door tavern where Jess and the boys had hot cocoa and I had a beer named for the abbey. It was a great ending to a fantastic day. A side note and a reason to brag on my wife occured as we sat down for our libations. Though she has only been at her French lessons for about three weeks, Jess was able to conduct the entire order and payment in French. Now, she was not conversing with the waitress in depth, but she asked this and that and made our orders and not once did she look at us as though we were uninteligible Americans. Actually, I think she looked at Jess with a hint of admiration. The French get a bad rap with us in America for being rude and the like. In my experience I have not found them to be that way. They are just a bit proud of their culture and appreciate it if you at least make an effort to speak their language. Even a poor attempt is better than no attempt at all. So even though she has a long way to go before she has full command of the language I was so proud of Jess. It's not easy being over here in a land where few people speak our language. By learning their language you are slowly gaining the respect of the locals. Hopefully when we go to Paris in a few weeks you'll be even further along and will get us around. I on the other hand have not started a lesson yet. I wanted to try to get a handle on my job first before grappling with a new language. I'll likely start my lessons after the new year when the second session at the language school begins.
Our friend at the pub
(There was a rocky area behind the pub that had 2 goats...probably pets of the pub owner)
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