Mademoiselle Papillon and Valloires' preventorium

We are now in the middle of Picardy. A small village hides a treasury, the beautiful Cistercian Valloires abbey... We have gorgeous gardens, with vegetable plots, rose garden, fountains where reflect poplars and bamboos... and the abbey, founded in 1137 by count Guy de Ponthieu.

The church was raised in the 12th and 13th century. During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the abbey was turned into a fortress and it was damaged. In 1637, the abbey's dwelling house was burnt: 3 chapels were destroyed in the church.

A third fire happened four years later. The church entirely burnt.

The king of France allowed Valloires' abbot to cut woods in 1730 for the reconstruction. Architect Raoul Coigniart drew the plans of the new building. The building works started in 1741 and were finished in 1756.

Jean Veyren (nicknamed le Vivarais) and the Austrian Simon Pfaff de Pfaffenhoffen designed the inner decoration (don't miss his beautiful panelling).

The abbey didn't suffer during the French Revolution, thanks to lord of Argoules, who bought the land in order to save it. Saint-Vincent-de-Paul friars lived in the abbey between 1880 and 1901.

Then it was transformed into a preventorium for children (a kind of hospital) with the help of Miss Papillon, in 1922.

So, the current buildings date back to the 18th century. Here, we can see the courtyard with its front door, flanked by semi-circular outhouses. Here, a 16th century limestone dovecote. There, the main building and the church.