The refectory

This refectory with two naves is one of a very few such buildings that can still be visited in France.

The refectory is connected with the kitchens by a serving hatch where the monks came to fetch dishes prepared there. From the pulpit on the western wall a monk read to the other monks from sacred texts; for this reason the hall is also a place for meditation and edification, which explains the high quality of the architecture.

© Claude Laurenziani

> The cotton mill

> The first restorations in the 19th century

> Restoration of the room and re-laying of the tiles

The cotton mill

The greatest architectural upheavals took place after 1791, when the abbey was purchased by the Marquis de Travanet and transformed into a cotton mill.

The refectory was separated into four parts by partitions from the reader's pulpit to the entrance and to the left and right of the latter, two large furnaces were installed. In the space lying closest to the pulpit, workshops were set up for the mechanics in charge of the cotton mill's precise and complicated tools.

From the pulpit to the windows at the back, a dryer was installed. Two spans of the vault were demolished and a column taken down. The windows were fitted with slotted shutters to allow air to flow freely and provide protection from rain.

The church was destroyed, as was the monks' room, the parlour, the chapter room and the eastern gallery of the cloister. Mr. Van der Mersch, a Belgian entrepreneur, bought the cotton mill from the Travanet heirs in 1815. The dryers were kept and then, when a cotton bleaching unit was added to the mill, a hot room was installed at the entrance near the furnaces to serve as a starch works (potato starch was used to finish the bleached fabrics).

The mill was re-sold in 1855 to Mr. Morinière; the heating unit was destroyed and replaced by two levels of workshops used to print small so-called "California" shawls. A forge was placed in the reader's pulpit.

The first restorations in the 19th century

The Oblats de Marie-Immaculée de Marseille purchased the abbey in 1864 and began restoration work at the instigation of Father Lafayette. The two spans that had been destroyed were rebuilt and the last column was restored. The vaults were cleaned and the reader's pulpit, from which the forge was removed, was completely restored.

The two windows of the south gable were fitted with panes bearing the coats of arms of Blanche of Castile and Saint Louis. The sills of the other windows, which had been lengthened to provide more light, were rebuilt to their former level.

The abbey was resold in 1869 to the sisters of the Sainte-Famille de Bordeaux, who went about restoring it, entrusting the work to a local architect, Charles Vernier. They converted the refectory into a chapel. In 1872 the stained-glass windows were installed with escutcheons illustrating the works of the Holy Family.

This room is the one which most closely resembles what it looked like in the 13th century. The exceptions are the stained glass dating back to 1868, the organ installed in 1937 and the mausoleum of Henri d'Harcourt (which was taken from the church when it was destroyed to the church in Asnières-sur-Oise and then returned to the refectory in 1958).

Restoration of the room and re-laying of the tiles

In 1998, the Chief Architect for Historic Monuments carried out a study, for the first time, of the condition of the refectory. Many cases of damage were identified; they did not, however, threaten the stability of the structure.

The floor had been severely damaged, grouting was deteriorated or gone, stones were damaged, facings and stained glass were dirty, the reader's pulpit was cracked and it ceiling in disrepair. The refectory was in very decrepit condition, compounded by successive alterations carried out haphazardly. Restoration was therefore essential.

The most spectacular part of the work consisted in restoring the medieval decorative tile flooring. The floor of the kitchens and of the refectory was completely re-laid. The outside and inside walls, stained glass, abutments and refectory reader's pulpit ceiling and railing were also restored. Radiant floor heating was installed in both rooms.