Back in the Loire Valley, we drove the 30 or so winding, twisty miles over to Fontevraud to see the Royal Abbey. The Abbey is the burial place of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who, Chuck’s genealogy research has shown, may have a connection to his family. Built in the early 1100’s, it’s an interesting place, mostly because for centuries it was headed by a series of women, the Abbesses of the Bourbon family. The Abbey had a big influence on the community: it rented lands, grew food, and served as a boarding school for famous royal families, But by the end of the 1700’s, everything started to fall apart and eventually the monks and nuns left and the buildings were abandoned. In the early 1800’s it became a prison, and a progressive one at that. It was initially intended to receive 700 prisoners and by the mid-1800’s it actually accommodated 1,600 prisoners. Interestingly, in 1943 it still had 1,200 inmates and in 1963 it still housed 500. Prisoners worked in the fields and in the manufacture of products for the army. After closing inn 1963, it was bought by the French government. Today it serves as a laboratory for sustainable development and welcomes tourists as well as those who come to attend conferences, concerts, film festivals, exhibitions, and educational workshops.