French Treats Day 2

Sunday started with the first workshop, a joint workshop with 'Face cloths' as the theme. A number of different textured stitches were offered and the students started to work on the stitch pattern they preferred.


Later in the morning students where asked to choose the yarn colour and beads for the lace and mittens project. The yarn for these 2 projects was one skein of lace weight alpaca yarn from Coldharbour Mills in Devon so this meant the skein needed to be re-wound. The tutors then found their true calling acting as skein swifts!!

After lunch we were taken on a trip to The Abbey of Fontdouce (Gentle Fountain) to look around and possibly find some design inspiration. There was also a music festival going on at the Abbey and during the afternoon a local chamber choir was singing at various places around the Abbey.

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The Abbey was built in the 11th or 12th century as a monastery for Benediction monks. At one point it became a Royal Abbey but much of it was destroyed during the Wars of Religion and again during the French Revolution. It stopped being a religious centre a couple of centuries ago and became a private residence. It is still a private residence but they are trying to restore some of the old parts.

The Abbey was well known for its garden, a formally laid out garden but there weren't many flowers in bloom when we visited but I did manage to find some interesting flowers and images. When we got back to Le Vieux Monastere I also took some pictures of the poppies in the field by the property.