cloître, clôture

le cloître, la clôture (FR N-M) cloister, that part of a monastery off limits to the uninitiated, closed by a gate; an entire monastery; place within a monastery or contiguous to a cathedral, having columns at the outer edge of an arcade, facing a garden or other interior court, modeled on the ancient Roman atrium. The cloister is the heart of the monastery, linking the church with all other parts of the complex. The open galleries were also the dormitories of the monks, which must have posed…