L'Abbaye de Chaalis

The fellowettes woke up early on Monday morning to attend classes at Lycée Hugues Capet in Senlis. They ate lunch in the cafeteria and after school, Madame took them on a short excursion to the nearby Abbaye de Chaalis. Unfortunately, Lexi was not able to join us on this adventure because her host family had other plans for her.

It was late afternoon and as these pictures show, the girls were incredibly happy to be in France, in this beautiful place, having the most memorable adventure of their lives:

On the property of the Abbaye de Chaalis, there is this late-18th Century manor:

 

We went on an exploratory walk among the ruins of the old Cistercian abbey, destroyed during the French Revolution and its stones sold off in chunks in the 19th century to build homes in the surrounding area. It is still a peaceful and beautiful site:

 

Our resident ballet ingenue, Rachal, found the perfect poses to insert herself into this beatiful setting:

 

Behind the ruins of the Abbaye is a perfectly preserved and restored chapel, known as the "Abbey Chapel of Holy Mary" (La chapelle abbatiale de Sainte-Marie")

 

Piper became quit the time-traveling archaeologist, discovering some graffiti from 1618:

As we crossed from the chapel over to the gardens, we walked under some chestnut trees and Charissa became completely enchanted by the idea of real chestnuts, so she began gathering a collection. The nature and the beauty of this place was quite inspiring.