Caen

Caen, seen from the ramparts of William the Conqueror's castle.

Following our visit with the Fleurys, we spent a day in Caen, the capital of the region of Basse-Normandie ("the Wisconsin of France"), and the site of some very fierce fighting in World War II in the months following D-Day, it being one of the primary first objectives of the landings. Caen is where Brice works and where we would catch the train back to Rennes so it was very conveniently placed for a visit, especially because Brice had to be at work by 8 am and our train home didn't leave till the afternoon. Brice kindly drove us in to the city with him (thanks, Brice!) but because he starts work so early, we arrived in central Caen well before sunrise (around 8:45 this time of year). So we got a cup of coffee at the cafe in the train station waiting for daylight and for sites to be open.

Eglise Saint-Pierre.

We started our tour of the city at the church of Saint-Pierre, a Gothic Norman church from the 13th to 16th centuries with an impressive bell tower. We spent about a half-hour there waiting for the tourist office across the street to open so we could get our requisite free city map. Afterwards, we walked back across the street to the chateau de Caen, originally built by William the Conqueror around 1060 (he was from Caen and made it the seat of his duchy prior to his conquest of England).

Belltower, Saint-Pierre.

Interior, Saint-Pierre.

Most of the interior of William's chateau is gone, replaced with a parking lot and with modern museums (such as the fine arts museum and a museum of Normandy). However, the ramparts are still standing and quite imposing (although almost all of it post-dates William). Moreover, the whole structure sits on a height from which you can get some great views of the rest of the city (see above). Despite the destruction of much of the interior (some of it caused by Allied bombs during the attack on the city in 1944), it's still one of the largest castles in western Europe.

Ramparts of the castle.

From the castle, we decided to walk to the Men's Abbey, founded in 1063 (along with an abbey for women) by William as penance for marrying his cousin (ah, medieval French nobility!). On the way, we passed the church of Saint-Saveur, but, despite our best attempts, we couldn't find a way in!

How do you get in here?

Men's Abbey (Abbaye aux hommes).

The Men's Abbey now houses Caen's city hall in one part of the building and when we initially tried to get in, that's where we ended up. The receptionist told us that the main entrance to the church was outside and around the corner, but that they could open up the cloisters for us, to which we said "sure." It was a very peaceful and understated place and I'm pretty sure we were the first people in there all day!

Interior, Men's Abbey.

We then found the entrance to the abbey church. The exterior contains a lot of complicated and beautiful Gothic spires from the 13th century, but the interior was amazingly bright, simple, and Romanesque from the 11th century. As Lisa noted, it had one of the most perfect interior perspectives of any church we've been to. It was very tall with a deep clerestory level and it's all built out of Caen limestone, a local creamy-yellow limestone. (The Normans liked it so much, William even imported it to England after his conquest to build the original Tower of London!) That, too, makes it much brighter and airy than most of the other churches we've seen in France. An additional highlight is that William the Conqueror is buried in the church. Or was. During the Wars of Religion in the 16th century, Calvinists destroyed his tomb and scattered his bones. What little of him is left is still buried there, though, and it's quite ironic, I think, that the last man to conquer England is buried in France.

William the Conqueror's tomb,
Men's Abbey.

Cloister, Men's Abbey.

Clerestory level, Men's Abbey.

Fortress ruins.

After lunch at a pretty good Italian restaurant (where we sat next to an on-duty firefighter who had a beer with his lunch - ah, France!), we walked back to the chateau to see the archaeological remains from William the Conqueror's original castle (they hadn't been open in the morning and we hoped they would be now). We weren't disappointed and so we got to see William's original great hall and the foundations of the central tower (or "donjon") of his castle. At the very moment we had climbed to the top of the walls to see the foundations, it started to rain, making it a perfect time to head back to the train station to catch our train home to Rennes.

PS. This entry was written by Aaron, despite the fact it says by Lisa.

Bonus Picture 1: Cat, seen on the way to lunch. Obviously,
this was taken and captioned by Lisa.

Bonus picture 2: Saint-Etienne le Vieux, as seen from the
Abbaye aux Hommes.

Bonus picture: Chapel on the hill of the castle, now a museum.