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Fontenelle

In 1212, two young noble ladies built, near a miraculous fountain, a small oratory which soon became the prosperous Cistercian abbey of Fontenelle. It knew a great renown in the XIVth century when Countess Jeanne de Valois came to retire in this quiet place, with her family and friends. For centuries the Abbey knew both richness and destructions. After the French Revolution, it was damaged, and then sold to a building contractor who made it a stone quarry. By 1900, all structures had disappeared. In 1977, the remains of the abbey church were dug out, and now a small archaeological site and a park can be visited all year long.