Benedictine Palace

It is a far longer story than I can tell. Probably there is some truth to the monk/alchemist Dom Bernardo Vincelli making something like Benedictine, perhaps in the 16th century. The recipe was lost in the French Revolution. Later, in the 19th century, a Fecamp wine merchant with the improbable but fitting name of Alexandre Le Grand announced he had found the recipe (made of grain alcohol and 27 botanicals), and began producing it in Fecamp, associating it in every way possible with the Benedictines and their abbey. Le Grande was bit of a marketing genius, I think. In any case, Benedictine became a raging success, Le Grande patented it, and thinking even bigger, built the Palace to showcase it and its purported abbaciale heritage. The Palace, dedicated in 1900, is a gorgeous Gothic/Renaissance/Art Nouveau structure that houses both an art collection of some note and the distillery. Here is the briefest of tours of the Palace.

Yes, it really is a distillery

Beautiful glass throughout; here's Alexandre and friends designing
the place

And Dom Bernardo devising the recipe

Ceiling of the Gothic Room, like an over-turned Viking ship;
must remember our roots

Medieval devotional tryptich

15th century Pieta

Library of incunibles

Alexandre le Grand receiving the recipe for the spirit (this is
metaphorical, hopefully)

Boiling St. Ursula, 15th century polychrome

St. Roch (patron saint of flashers and pederasts)

Rotunda in one of the halls

15th century St. Denis

Ceiling treatment

Detail of stained/painted window treatment

In the metal room (locks, weapons, etc.)

Keys and two 16th century wedding chests

These boots were made for walking

Among manuscripts on display, King St. Louis'
1269 charter to the abbey

And several illuminated texts

The paintings did not knock me out; here, The
Wicked Rich Man, Flemish, 16th

And The Good Rich People; apparently part of a set

Board room; too much spot and incandescent lighting, throughout

The Le Grand mansion, adjacent to the palace/distillery; Madame
Le Grand still lives there (a distant descendant, I presume)