Even this plainness being considered, 45 Euro for a person with three meals is extremely reasonable. Its dining room and meeting room face westward. I am sorry that my vocabulary is too limited to describe the breathtaking beauty of the setting sun in the spreading hills I saw at dinner from the dining room. Before the dinner , more than 10 Dominican monks get together to offer a prayer chanting. I am familiar with neither Christianity nor religious music, but I felt the strong but pure voices of the monks resonating in the huge space surrounded by concrete walls guide me to heavenly world.
The meals are served on large platters, which you can freely take to your own plate. Each table is for twelve people. The menu for supper when we stayed there was bread, light wine, carrot salad, macaroni au gratin, fruits of several kinds and for breakfast , bread, orange juice, milk, butter, jam, coffee, hot chocolate, etc. We missed lunch unfortunately, which, according to a long stayer, serves meat dish. I guess the main meal there is lunch.

The building is composed of 100 rooms for nuns, a library, a canteen and a church. Its outer appearance gives you the overwhelming impression of a boldly designed concrete mass. Coming inside, you find yourself in a traditional monastery with a cloister garth. What you see here is the modern architecture having inherited the DNA of traditional monastery building. Corbusier’s special ideas are everywhere in this construction, which establishes itself as an encyclopedia of modern architecture. You read books in a quiet room, you take walks in the fields surrounded by woods. You spend leisurely passing of time tasting the building whose look changes according to the time and the light. Convent of La Tourette offers you the greatness of living slow lives.






Couvent de La Tourette
BP 105 Eveux 69591 L’Arbresle cedex
Reception : tel 33 (0)4 74 26 79 99
Culture@couventlatourette.com
www.couventlatourette.com

translated by Yuji Tazaki