![The abbey](/_next/image?url=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A4000%2Fimages%2Fa%2Fd0%2Ff5%2F2e%2Fd0f52e28-b7d8-442a-b055-00931040cd7a.jpg&w=3840&q=70)
The name of this beautiful Cistercian abbey came from a man called Ebbon de Charenton, a local lord, who drowned into a lake near the abbey: in memory of this sad accident, this lake was called "black lake", noir lac.
But this is only a legend!
Anyway, 12 monks from Clairvaux abbey came there in 1136 in order to found a monastery. In the beginning, it was very hard for them.
Archives told in 1149, monks were starving; they even asked from other abbeys a little bit of wheat...
Fortunately, in 1150, Ebbe V de Charenton gave them money: from then on, Noirlac get out of this difficult situation. They started to raise church, cloister, several buildings...
In the 13th and 14th centuries, the abbey became richer: the estate was composed of 17 farms, a 275 hectares wood, many mills...