The Royal Monastery of Brou

Stunning roof tiles

Last week’s visit into the Bresse to see the cattle market allowed us to revisit one of the most impressive Gothic sites in this area - the monastery at Brou just outside Bourg-en-Bresse. Our first visit to this place was when we stayed on a camping à la ferme near Villefranche, which must have been 15 or more years ago, back in the days when we only dreamed of doing what we now do. Although we have visited it since, it is not one of our regular haunts. We were definitely not disappointed with this visit and we were both left wondering why we don’t come out this way more often, it’s less than an hour from home and well worth the detour.

The choir and the beautiful stained glass windows

The church is exquisitely decorated and is a perfect textbook example of Flamboyant Gothic. Amazingly the whole place was built in a record time of less than 20 years, but sadly the commissioner (Margaret of Austria) died in Belgium three months before it was completed and she never saw the buildings herself even though her remains are interred there. The monastery parts (three cloisters and surrounding buildings) are impressive in their size and decoration, and the roof is really something to behold. It is all a big difference to the simple style Romanesque style we are so used to visiting around here.

Bizarre detail of the back of a choir chair

This place is really well worth all the Michelin stars it gets and as a bonus, the entry ticket gives you a reduced price entry to the Abbey in Cluny – having said that, I think we’ll stick to the free Sunday visits during the winter period, which of course less fortunate visitors can’t do.

This was on a writing desk in one of the nuns cells..

After all that walking and absorbing the culture we were in need of some refreshment and the icing on the cake of the day was the array of restaurants directly opposite the church. They weren’t there when we first visited as I can remember spending hours, on a miserable Sunday, looking for something, looking for anything, to eat. All the restaurants looked good but we plumped for La Duchesse de Savoie which was superb value for money, excellent food and packed by 12.00 which is always a good sign. So we finished our day out in the Bresse with that excellent lunch.

What better way can you imagine to spend a leisurely day?