L'Abbye

On the way down from Paris, we spent the night in an abbey that was built in the 1400's. Kinda incredible! (The hallway where our room was looked like we were in Beauty and The Beast.) 
The next morning we went downstairs for breakfast and saw this unbelievable spread! The breads, jams and yogurts were all made by the monks and nuns that live nearby in the Loire Valley. 
As I was taking it all in, the lady who oversees the dining room, explained all of the little intricacies to me. To start, she told me to take a shot of this elixir in this bottle

I thought "wow, little early for this...but ok!" Turns out, all of the accompaniments are all related to health and wellbeing. Mainly digestion. 

There were flavorless powders that you could mix into yogurt, cereal or juices. Some were rich in omegas, some were to help with cholesterol or just straight up fiber. The shot I mentioned before was to aid in digestion and didn't have any alcohol in it. Guess one might need help after seeing all of the goodies on the long wooden table! 
There was so many different kinds of meats and cheeses. One of my faves was a cheese that was red and had pepper inside that was so unusual and truly like nothing we've had while traveling in this region of France.

The boys really liked the gingerbread and fresh fruit yogurt. Jude liked squeezing his own orange juice! Among all of the deliciousness, the crepes with homemade apple butter was another fave.