A Quiet Night in Paris: Spend the Night in a Convent in Montmartre

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A Quiet Night in Paris: Spend the Night in a Convent in Montmartre
One is spoiled for choice for hotels in Paris. I am always hesitant at the lower end of the budget as I have had some horrors and my coffers don’t permit much choice. So recently I fell back on my old practice of booking in to a convent. These suit me as I am by nature eremitical and quiet. I know I will have a good night’s sleep and the bed will be clean; cleanliness being next to godliness. I know in advance the room will be simple, spare and featureless – there will be no TV, no coffee making facilities, most often no soap and a very small towel. There will be three simple meals a day in the cost – or those costs defrayed in some cases if eating out. When I stayed at the gorgeous Abbaye Saint-Benoît d’En Calcat in Dourgne the food was so nourishing I begged to stay longer than the stipulated seven days. There, the monks grow or farm most everything themselves and take turns at being chef for the week; the menu and culinary expertise is the luck of the draw – I was lucky! Meals are taken in silence. Often with a reading or accompanied by music – music, it goes without saying, of a sacred kind. It doesn’t allow for convivial chatter or inconsequential small-talk but it does incline one’s attention to the present moment – which at mealtimes is eating the food. I inevitably smile and recall a parable I once heard: the peasant downs tools at the end of the day, goes home and eats his wife’s dinner, not much given to reflection or commentary or compliment but he appreciates it and all that has gone into its making; the intellectual man shuts down his computer at the end of the day, rushes from the office, gets snarled up in traffic or misses his train, gets home, downs his dinner – and doesn’t realise what he has eaten, and even less has the ability to appreciate his wife’s cooking so intent is he on solving the problems he left for tomorrow; the wise man downs whatever it is he has been doing, goes home, smells his wife’s meal, savors every mouthful and at the end knows what he’s eaten and the care and love gone into its making. A modern version of the ‘chop wood carry water’ teaching. That is what eating in companionable silence does, focus you on food, and, it would be hoped, on its making and its Maker. The charism of the Benedictine tradition is hospitality so if you find one of these oases of calm, and you are of quiet intent and early to bed, you may be glad of these discoveries which are still found throughout France and Italy. Not all monasteries and convents offering hospitality are Benedictine now as almost all struggle to find ways to earn a little money to keep the roof from leaking or pay their heating bills. And, of course, to welcome inquiry. But way back in the beginning of the sixth century an Italian hermit named Benedict – Benoît in French – drew to himself men and women of the day seeking to make sense of their life, the meaning, perhaps, of their sorrows. It’s the same today – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Saint Benedict realized that those who stayed needed shelter and small huts were built. In time modes of behavior were modified by necessity and eventually St Benedict wrote a Rule, still valid today. To stay the cost is little, perhaps €45 a night though it varies. Traditionally there was no charge and one donated according to one’s means, but today meaner minds closed to the sanctuary of safety, or simply looking for cheap stayovers, fell to donating pittances, and wealthy benefactors no longer exist to augment such parsimony. Thus a rightful charge is made. That said, and it needed to be said for there are those who labor under the misguided view that “spiritual” must mean free. With cavalier disregard to the fact that heating, laundry, feeding guests, water rates and all the obvious do not come free. We use them all and today the charge is rightful. I can think of no better real estate in the whole of France or Italy where such places exist! Each of them is central to the landscape they were established in, even the more modern ones. And in Paris where more wonderful than the Basilica of the Sacré-Coeur itself! The Benedictine sisters have a guesthouse right there in Montmartre. It is attached to the Basilica by an internal corridor and it is wonderful to walk from one to the other without venturing outside. One can make of it a genuine retreat, always preferred of course, or explore Paris to be home before curfew. I almost typed the witching hour then, but realized the choice of words would have been a significant faux pas! Curfew is early, 10 o’clock I think, but as I am always abed by nine it doesn’t bother me. If you wish to explore the nightlife of Montmartre or the dazzling allure of the Moulin Rouge it will not be for you. In the morning – I had shuffled my single bed with some difficulty around the tiny room on the fourth floor so as to see out of the narrow window as the sun rose – I was simply awed by the splendid view of the…
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Lead photo credit : Sacré-Cœur Basilica. Photo: Nigelle de Visme

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Nigelle de Visme is of Swiss and English origin and currently lives in Glastonbury. She has lived in Australia, India and France and still travels extensively. A published author, she was nominated for a French Media Award in March 2017. At the age of 68 she walked the Chemin Saint Jacques from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela and is at her happiest in gardens, wild places and the thirteenth century. Après Brexit she is exploring the possibility of applying for political asylum in France.

Comments

  • Brenda Landman
    2017-12-23 02:24:23
    Brenda Landman
    The second picture in this article showing an artist drawing inside a Church is incorrectly ascribed - it is the Church of Saint Sulpice in the 6th arrondissement. (Comment from South Africa)

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  • Robbie
    2017-12-05 20:37:05
    Robbie
    Let us know how your application for political asylum is received. I have a US passport so my visits to France are limited to 3 months in a six month period; I would like to have an apartment in France and not be limited to a 3 month stay. Certainly the French government should sympathize with anyone wanting to escape the craziness in the US.

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  • Helene Hibbert
    2017-12-01 01:31:39
    Helene Hibbert
    Bonne journee Brie. From Afrique de Sud. [email protected]

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  • Geri Metz
    2017-11-30 23:15:39
    Geri Metz
    This was a very interesting article. I also stayed in a convent some years ago (I think it was in the 15th) and it was a special experience. I will share this on my Facebook page. Also: it looks like you take ads. I would like information about placing an ad with you, your circulation, etc. Thanks, Geri

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  • Brie Hill
    2017-11-30 13:13:56
    Brie Hill
    I am planning to stay at Paris Convent on my next journey. In 1958, my best friend and I met in Paris to celebrate our 21st birthdays. Now turning 80, we will return. Thank you. What an ideal reunion. Brie

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