The monks of Fécamp

We all know about monks – the chaps who devote their lives to God spending their days praying, farming and copying out the occasional manuscript (good joke about that later). Well, a group of monks eventually get themselves well enough organised, and without women around to distract them their minds inevitably turn to other evils, namely all the weird and wonderful ways you can make yourself drunk! And the monks in a monastery nearby Fécamp became pretty damn good at it. They happened to be Benedictine monks and their name was lent to what was their greatest elixir of all, Benedictine liqueur. These monks must have had a lot of time on their hands, the stuff has 27 different herbs and spices, cardamon, mace, myhrr (looks like kauri gum) and 24 others. And of course, being monks they could write unlike most in the medieval world, thank god, because they wrote down the recipe.
Time went by and many crusades and sackings and various other occurrences and the monastery was in ruins and the recipe lost forever… or so it was thought, until around the mid-1800’s. Then a bloke called Alexander turns up and starts poking around the old monastery, and having a thing for both greater alcoholic beverages and old manuscripts comes across the recipe for what he was to call Benedictine. It became pretty popular but he was not reaching a wide enough market for the volumes he wanted to make so he started some serious marketing - he got posters made, patented the recipe, branded the product etc. etc. and managed to raise 2 million francs (could have been more I think) and decided to build a palace. And so the highlight of our day was created, a fantastic palace housing religious artefacts, paintings and various ‘memorabilia’ (this Alexander chap was keen on art as well and hence the palace was built to house both art and to distil Benedictine in the
cellars). A fantastic place - beautiful ceilings, amazing spires and deep in the bowels the Benedictine factory. Definitely worth a visit, thanks to Michele for the suggestion to rest here.

Later today (today being Thursday 14 Sep) we went to the cliffs at Etretat (another Michele suggestion) and really quite splendid. Chalk cliffs with arches carved from the motion of the sea, and after the many stairs walk to the top a neat little church nestled on the edge.

The other excitement for today, our first night of free camping. Little spots in France are designated as free camp places, you just park up and you’re done and it doesn’t cost you a Euro. Tonight’s spot is not too flash, a parking spot by the marina, but the book tells us some of these free camp places are in the most amazing places, so we must try again. Of course the only issue with free camping is the lack of a loo beyond the one in the camper… nuf’ said.

Tomorrow we head for the beaches of Normandy.