Journeys to Hidden Provence
--The Monastery
Other stops
The journey is guided by Steve Hoegerman. See his great website at
www.frenchfestival.com.
The Monastery.
This monastery is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was built in 1562. Our room was on the top floor just at the left edge of the yellow church portion. We could look down into the church thru a window just across the hall from our room. The singing nuns sounded wonderful.
The monastery was built over a cave with a chapel to the Black Madonna. This cult came about in the third or fourth century. It is likely that this cave had been used to worship various goddesses since prehistoric times.
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The view from our room at the monastery. The road in the background is the coast road to Nice.
Provence was the first province of Rome outside Italy. The Romans erected this trophy to mark the occasion. The size is hard to get. The blocks are three feet high each. The part of the trophy not there was used to construct local buildings over the centuries.
Rough translation. "No urinating here. Penalty is confiscation of object.": Sounds serious.
Paris —– Cote d'Azur –— Back Country —– Nice –— Hill Towns —– London