The one place you should really try to see is the ruined Abbey (daily: June–Sept 10am–6.30pm; Oct–May 10am–12.30pm & 2.30–5.30pm; €3.81) at LA SAUVE-MAJEURE, some 25km east of Bordeaux, an important stop for pilgrims en route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Once it was all forest here, the abbey's name being a corruption of the Latin silva major (big wood). It was founded in 1079, and the treasures of what remains are the twelfth-century Romanesque apse and apsidal chapels and the outstanding sculpted capitals in the chancel. The finest are the ones illustrating stories from the Old and New Testaments (Daniel in the lions' den, Delilah shearing Samson's hair and so on), while others show fabulous beasts and decorative motifs. There is a small museum at the entrance, with some excellent photos of the ruins, along with keystones from the fallen roofs. But what makes the visit so worthwhile is not just the capitals themselves, but the remote, undisturbed nature of the site.
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