Our abbey is surrounded by gardens that foster peace and contemplation. Each offers a unique landscape, and the monks are responsible for maintaining them. Every year, on Palm Sunday, Rogation Days and Corpus Christi, the faithful are welcome to join the monks and take part in a procession through these gardens.
The guesthouse garden, laid out on terraces, surrounds a small house with pink roughcast walls. The small hillside separating the monastery from the path running alongside the River Sarthe – which we call ‘the valley’ – is maintained by sheep through eco-grazing. But the largest gardens are enclosed. This is the French Garden, with its lawns and its yews trimmed into cubes and cones. It symbolises the order of monastic life. Beyond lies the park, with the vast lawn of La Poulie at the far end.
