Ceret - St Genis and Mum's birthday.

It had rained overnight and was grey out. We accused our landlady, Margie, of bringing the weather with her from England. Still it wasn't actually pouring so we drove to St Genis des Fontaines and after navigating around some closed roads found our way to the cloister.

There's a nice reception area and then a little courtyard and this small doorway
into the cloister.

According to the English write up we were given, the Benedictine Abbey was founded around 780 and dedicated to Saint-Genis, a martyr of Arles who died in 303. It was destroyed in the 9th century and what we saw today was developed in the 12th and 13th century. It had its ups and downs with the fortunes and invaders and was abandoned . Between 1922 and 1924 the cloister was dismantled and parts sold off.

It is smaller than the cloister at Elne (which after all is at the Cathedral) without the
stone arched ceilings.

There are pictures of how it looked before the restoration that was done between 1985
and 1998. Parts were returned from where they had ended up in the Louvre and Mesnuls
castle but not from the Philadelphia Museum, USA.

It is unique in that the pillars are made from 3 different types of marble; white from Ceret, pink from
 Villefranche and black from Corbiere. 

The carving, mostly at the tops of the columns is much more primitive than that in Elne though
there are many similar symbols.

lots of plant and animal motifs

and also mythological creatures. Of the mermaids, the write up stated "they served as a reminder
to the monks that they had to fight evil and resist various apparitions"

A door from the cloister leads into the church , St Michel.

The church is a simple construction of massive stone walls. There has been and
continues to be, repair and reconstruction work, hence the scaffolding.

At one time all the walls and ceilings of the church would have been painted but time and
damp have worked their damage.

In the chapel of Our Lady of Montserrat a representation in wood of
the chapels on the steep mountain sides of the area.

Outside, the carved lintel over the front door is dated 1019. The projecting "corbels" around it
would have supported a protective canopy.

Kind of creepy looking "corbel".

At St Genis des Fontaines we were half way to Argeles so Mum opted to have her birthday lunch there. We tried another restaurant (Mezza Mezza) around the marina attracted by a more interesting menu de jour on the blackboard outside and were not dissapointed.

We all had the shrimp and avocado salad which also had a lot of mussels in it.

We all had the gratin de fruits de mer which came with a few roast vegetables on the side.
But oh, the sauce that the seafood was in was so rich and creamy, we asked for bread to
sop it all up with.

Dad had a dessert that he let the waitress talk him in to. We knew it was pineapple but didn't
quite understand the rest of her description. Turned out they were very thinly sliced and then
heated by carmelizing sugar on top (like a brulee). Dad seemed to enjoy it, leastwise there were
no offers to share.

Mind you, Mum and I weren't offering to share our flans au oeufs either.

Glass of wine, cup of coffee and Mum and I decided to walk some of it off along the beach front but this is a long post so I will post the pictures of that tomorrow.