\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \qj\li105\ri195 \f1 \b Cirque de Baume\par
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\b0 The Jura plateau looks as if it has been cut out by a gigantic force. The product of inten
se erosion, the Cirque de Baume forms a cul-de-sac, a dead end well away from roads. This isolated site, at the edge of a watercourse in a landscape of wild grandeur, attracted the attention of the Benedictines. On the initiative of St Columba (an Irish
monk who was one of the founders of Western monasticism), they built an abbey here in the sixth century. Some of its monks were to leave, three centuries later, to found Cluny in 910.\par
