Yes, we know that it’s now April, but we thought we’d post about some things that we didn’t manage to put in other blogs.
We went to the auberge in the little village of Correns to celebrate Alison’s birthday and as usual had an excellent meal. As Correns was France’s first ‘bio’ (organic) village, all the food is organic and the chef, whom we met afterwards, was emphatic that he always used seasonal and local produce. No tasteless Spanish tomatoes!
The river Argens runs past the village and after our meal we crossed the river and walked around the town, getting some good views as you can see from the photos. The path runs very close to where the big fire was in 2016, and traces of that can still be seen.
We then decided to track down a new monastery (opened within the past 10 years), keeping to the ancient Rule of St Benedict. The land was once owned by the Templars, and the small church was a store room until it was bought back and restored by the community. They are still working on the accommodation area though.
Linguistically and theologically it is very curious. The working language of the community is English. The language of the services is Latin and they make much of being in continuity with the ancient church. How this fits with the decision of Vatican II that the mass should be given in the language of the local community is an interesting one.
It’s not our sort of thing, but if you are going to set up a monastery, down here is as good a place to do it as any.
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