VILLERS ABBEY

The last time I had been in the Abbey of Villers-la-Ville was in 2008 and I wrote about it here.

Villers Abbey is an ancient Cistercian abbey located in the town of Villers-la-Ville in the Walloon Brabant province of Wallonia, one piece of the Wallonia's Major Heritage. Founded in 1146, the abbey was abandoned in 1796.

Meanwhile the Province of Wallonia has realized that they have a hidden treasure here and started to renovate and made a real tourist site out of it. Now you have headphones, explanations at each ruin and a map to guide you, in French, Dutch, German and English. The entrance fee has increased a little but is still affordable for everybody. ( 5 €, 7 $)

So I take you through the ruins to give you an idea of what you see.



This is a picture to show you the whole site.



and your guide



The refectory where the monks had their meals



The church



We met a group of young students who made a theatre play in the ruins







an old grave

























The bishops residence



and his garden



and a beautiful park all around. There is also a place for picnics with benches and tables.

The ruins are also used for theatre plays, for sound and light concerts, and other activities.

EASTBOURNE's REDOUBT

August 13, 2013


My picture and the one "stolen" from Wikipedia !

This is not a birthday cake, but the Eastbourne Redoubt, one of the south coast's most historic landmarks. This Napoleonic fortress covers over 200 years of history, and is named one of the top ten military museums in the UK.

Built to defend the south coast from Napoleon's forces it still stands as a unique monument to that time and now houses the largest military collection of its kind in the south of England.

I am not at all a friend of military stuff but when I saw the Redoubt from outside just located at the sea, it looked imposing to me and I wanted to see a little more.



The whole fortress is surrounded by a ditch, where now weeds grow with pleasure.





Through this entrance I went inside



and walked all around the place, stopping at each shooting point for the canons, still standing there.



The views were very peaceful and nice to see. There were no canon shooting soldiers, but only the sea, the beach, the town and a fitness center.

When I had walked all around I went downstairs into the courtyard.



It was rather hot and most of the tourists were inside



A shooting stand was there too, where you could shoot on little flying airplanes, but nobody seemed to have any interest in shooting.

Then I went inside the museum which was very interesting to see.





There were even a few items from the Waterloo battle, the town where I live.



Britain had fought so many battles of which items were shown too. I loved the drums, but less the bed, the poor wounded soldier was certainly not very comfortable on it.

My blogfriend Hilary who lives in Eastbourne had taken me along to see the Redoubt,  and while she was busy inside to attend a lecture about the Victoria Cross,




after having done my tour,  I waited for her sitting at the beachfront and watched the seagulls






The "Outpost cafe" is just located inside the court, but has also a terrace outside, leading to the seafront. We had a nice cup of tea there and I had also the "General's Cream Tea", with a scone, clotted cream and strawberry jam.

I enjoyed my visit very much !

You can read the whole history of the Redoubt here