I went by water to visit that goodly and venerable Abbey of Marmoutiers, being one of the greatest in the kingdom; to it is a very ample church of stone, with a very high pyramid. Among other relics the Monks showed us is the Holy Ampoulle ((“A cruise of oil, or la saint[e] ampoule, which they say St. Martin received from heaven by an Angel (having broken one of his ribs) and by applying it found present cure ” (Reresby’s Travels, 1831, p. 27). It was publicly destroyed at Rheims in 1793. Reresby also mentions the Tun “ as big as a little room.” The Abbey of Marmoutiers (majus monasterium) was on the right bank of the Loire. –AD)), the same with that which sacres their Kings at Rheims, this being the one that anointed Henry IV. Ascending many steps, we went into the Abbot’s Palace, where we were showed a vast tun (as big as that at Heidelberg), which they report St. Martin (as I remember) filled from one cluster of grapes growing there.

“Veüe de l’Abbaye de Marmoustier Lez Tours, de l’ordre de St Benoist, Congrégation de St Maur” by Louis Boudan. 17th century,. Source: BnF.