abbaye de la Grâce-Notre-Dame

The Cistercian convent of La Grâce-Notre-Dame once stood beside the Petit Morin in Courbetaux, south-east of Montmirail in the Marne département. Founded in 1223 by nuns of the Cistercian order, it became a priory of monks directly dependent on Cîteaux from 1464 until the French Revolution. In 1791 the buildings were dismantled and only field, farm and road names such as Bois de la Grâce, Ferme de la Grâce and Chemin de la Grâce remain. The site lies close to the former Cistercian abbey of Le Reclus, another house of the order founded in the same valley. After the nuns left, the monks continued the life of prayer and work begun by their predecessors for more than two centuries. The priory’s buildings were modest compared with great abbeys, yet they formed part of the network that once stretched across Europe. Today the landscape still carries traces of the monastery. The Petit Morin flows quietly past fields that once belonged to the community, and the names of wood, farm and lane recall its presence. Visitors walk quiet paths beside the river and recognise the same views that the Cistercians knew when they first cleared the land in the 13th century.