Abbaye de Fontenay - France

[Tomdaviesclay]

During our recent 3 1/2 week visit to Southern France, one of the most exciting places that we visited was Abbaye de Fontenay, which is located 50 miles northeast of Vezelay in the Burgundy Region. I was a three-fourth finished with my L'Instant Durable model of Abbaye de Fontenay when we began this - our tenth - Cathedral Quest. I finished it several days after we returned home, but have not had time to post it on Papermodelers.com. So here it is - with a slightly long description.

Bernard, who moved to Citeaux (which we also visited - but no models) in 1112, at the age of 22, founded Abbaye de Fontenay in 1118. Up until the 16th century this Cistercian Abbey was prosperous with more than 300 monks. Due to several factors - interest in revenue being one - the abbaye declined. Fontenay was sold during the French Revolution, and it became a paper mill. The paper mill closed its doors in 1903. Edouard Aynard, a banker and art collector from Lyon, bought the entire monastic complex in 1906. He restored it to its original state. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today ,It is a marvelous site for more than a hundred thousand visitors a year.

We arrived on a beautiful, sunny day, after driving some narrow roads in a very scenic area populated with many herds of Charolais (white cows). The parking lot was filled, but we didn't see many people. As we took our self guide tour, we found that cars belonged to a governmental agency that was having a meeting in the dormitory, which had been restored for such purposes. We had a wonderful time visiting all of beautifully restore buildings which are all open to the public. There was a large bookstore which had books both in French and English in addition to a glass case which contained the L'Instant Durable model. A stack of the kits were on a table next to it.

We may not have been aware of this wonderful site, if it hadn't been for the L' Instant Durable model. A year before we made this adventure, I searched for models churches, abbeys and castles of all cities in Burgundy, Provence, and Languedoc that we would be visiting. I ordered all of the models that I found ( all L' Instant Durable) and built all of them, except one and finishing Fontenay before our trip. The other is now finished and will appear shortly on another thread.

The model buildings are placed on a 17 X 24 inch base that is faithful to the layout of the abbey grounds which were beautifully designed and maintained. There were a number of wonderful old trees on the grounds. The model had sheets of autumn colored irregular circles that we to be crushed into a ball and mounted on top of a small trunk. I thought that the model buildings were so faithful to the real buildings that I didn't want to take away from the model by using these paper trees. Attached is a photo of the model cover showing these paper trees. I decided to use instead Woodland Scenes tree kits with autumn color lichen that have used for my model railroad layout. I made 20 trees which gave the entire model a more realistic look. I did use the sheets of background trees in the upper right corner. Instead of the little green paper trees in the cloister and the area in the back, I made the trees out of modeling clay, sprayed glued them and dip them in model railroad grass. In real life these trees were well shaped and manicured. The church is the tallest building on the model at 2 inches. Other buildings are 1 inch tall.

This is truly a wonderfully designed model of an unbelievably beautiful location. I would highly recommend it (the model and especially the "real thing").

[Vermin_King]

Very nice. Thanks for giving us write-ups on your travels to these places, too.

[Rubenandres77]

Thomas: as it is usual with your posts, you provide an interesting and enjoyable reading. I am happy everytime you share your experiences with us, and let us see your nicely finished models. The historical background you offer is also interesting. If I am enchanted from your reading, I can imagine the real experience must be most wonderful in person.
Thanks a lot!

[peter taft]

Absolutely splendid work on both model and information. Thank you.

[jagolden01]

Beautiful build and wonderful presentation. The fallen leaves around the trees (and the trees themselves) bring it to life.