The Benedictine abbey of Notre Dame de Belloc has been nestled in the hills of Southern France’s Basque region for more than 100 years. The countryside could not be more picturesque: rolling green hills dotted white with grazing sheep, needed to produce the abbey’s famous cheese, and snow-capped Pyrenees in the distance.
Mass in the abbey crypt is a sublime experience, as the austere modern chapel offers deeply resonant acoustics for the voices of the monks, whether they sing Gregorian chant or French or Basque-language polyphony.
But the abbey’s apparent serenity masks another dimension: solidarity with the Basque people. More than once French police have raided the abbey to search for evidence of collaboration with the Basque separatist movement, ETA.
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