"The country was wild and the language unknown to me, the natives were brutal and barbarous" (Radice & Clanchy, p. 33) He is talking about the inhabitants of the place in which the abbey is located, that is, Brittany. Brittany is the sort-of peninsula that sticks out on the west coast of France, and the unknown language Abelard talks about is most likely Breton (the Celtic language native to Brittany and completely different from French).
The location of Brittany on France, and the location of St. Gildas de Rhuys in Brittany.
But in all his complaining about the state of the monastery, he never talks about what the place looked like! Fortunately, the abbey is still standing today, and there are pictures of it.
The abbey from above.
Another fantastic angle of this abbey.
While the original monastery built in the 6th century no longer exists, it was rebuilt in the 11th century and this is what remains today- therefore, what is seen in the pictures probably is not too far off from what Abelard would have seen in 1126, minus some restorations here and there. (Link)
Works Cited
1. Radice, Betty, and M. T. Clanchy. “Letter 1: Historia Calamitatum.” The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Penguin, 2003, p. 33.
2. https://www.pierre-abelard.com/Table-itineraire-fichiers7/carte-presqu-ile-de-rhuys.gif
3. https://www.pierre-abelard.com/Table-itineraire-fichiers7/abbaye-de-rhuys.jpg
4. https://www.abbaye-de-rhuys.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/xb-pano-1r-652x226.jpg
5. https://www.france-voyage.com/cities-towns/saint-gildas-de-rhuys-20658/abbey-saint-gildas-rhuys-14140.htm
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