La Chaise-Dieu Abbey

At 1,080 metres on the Livradois plateau, La Chaise-Dieu has lived around its abbey for almost a thousand years. It all starts in 1043, when Robert de Turlande settled here as a hermit. Three centuries later, a child of the monastery who became pope in Avignon as Clement VI financed the current Gothic abbey church, built from 1344 to 1352 and then completed in 1378 under Gregory XI, his nephew, also a pope. The tomb of Clement VI still stands in the choir.

Inside, three things are worth the trip on their own. First the Danse macabre, a fresco painted around 1470 in which skeletons lead kings, merchants and peasants along 26 metres: everyone gets their turn, and it is one of the best preserved in Europe. Then the 14 Flemish tapestries of the 16th century, listed as Monuments historiques as early as 1840, restored and then reinstalled in a room of their own. And finally the carved oak stalls of the 15th century, where the monks followed the services.

Before you leave, take a turn through the Echo room: each of you stand in an opposite corner, speak softly facing the wall, and the other hears you as if you were side by side. The effect works every time.

The visit covers the abbey church, the cloister and the treasury rooms, self-guided, with an audio guide, or guided: allow 2 hours to see everything, and €12 to get in (€9 reduced rate). And every summer, the La Chaise-Dieu Festival, founded in 1966 by the pianist Georges Cziffra, turns the abbey church into a concert hall. Book several months ahead.