Caen: The Castle (Part 3 for today)

OK, I'm going to skip part 4 and make part 3 short and sweet because I've got to get some sleep before a long day tomorrow. So this posting is about William the Conquerer's castle and our walk back through old town to the hotel.

The castle is just across the street and up a hill from the last church I mentioned in Part 2. Like all castles, it is formidable, awe-inspiring, and just pretty darn amazing. We absolutely love exploring the different parts of old castles and learning all the heroic and sometimes tragic history of each and every one. This one was no exception - absolutely cool! Here are a couple of pics!

This is a half timbered house that you can see down in the city from up on the castle walls.

And this is another view from the castle walls. It's looking down across the old town of Caen. Pretty breathtaking!

 

 

These next three pics are of cool streets and buildings we saw as we walked from the castle back to the hotel. I can't believe the people of Caen get to walk every day among these old, historic buildings. I'm so thankful I'm seeing them, if only for a couple of days!

 

The old church to the right is very different from the others we saw because it has a WOODEN vaulted ceiling. Spectacular!

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, that's all for today's sight-seeing! I wish I could post 100 pics for you to enjoy, but it takes quite a bit of time to upload even just this many. So hopefully you're getting a little taste of the wonderful things we're seeing, even though I can't show you everything. Tomorrow we're off for a quick day trip to Rouen, the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and home to the world famous cathedral that Monet painted many times. Talk to you all tomorrow night!

 

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Caen: Abbaye aux Hommes (part 2 of 4 for today)

After the museum, we drove to another part of town to see the beautiful abbey that is attached to the Hotel deVilles (city hall). The Abbey of Saint-Etienne, also known as Abbaye aux Hommes (men's abbey), is a former monastery founded by William the Conquerer. It, like almost all the buildings in Caen, is made of a beautiful yellowy, creamy limestone. (Following William's conquest of England, many famous buildings in Britain (like the Tower of London and Canterbury Cathedral) are also made of this beautiful and world famous limestone.

 

 

 

The abbey is absolutely beautiful and the cloisters are breathtaking. They're so peaceful and quiet. The cloister garden is surrounded on fours sides by this colonnade walkway (see pic at left). The arches cast the most beautiful shadows onto the smooth, worn stones of the walkway.

 

 

The picture to the right is a view of the twin spires of the church of the abbey (St. Etienne) as seen through one of the cloister arches.

The facade of the abbey is the oldest part. It dates back to the 11th century.

To the left is the tomb of William the Conquerer. He was the Duke of Normandy until he invaded and conquered England in 1066 and became the first Norman king of the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the right is the interior of the abbey church. It was consecrated by William the Conquerer in 1077. This style is called Romanesque. I don't know very much about architecture, but I always love learning little bits about all the amazing buildings I see on our travels. If you're following this blog you'll probably see a LOT of churches in our pics, but I can't help it. They're just so beautiful, and no two are ever the same.

 

 

 

Below, is a picture of a church that was partially destroyed in WWII. It's no longer used, obviously, and you can see the remains of the wooden beams inside the arches. The french woman I talked to about it said that the people in Caen refer to it as the old St. Etienne's and the Hommes Abbaye (above) as the new St. Etienne's. I don't know if it really is older than one built in the 11th century, but the bombed out shell of it is every bit as beautiful to me! It has such a tragic history!

The final church I have to show you is the Church of St. Pierre up in the city center (in the old town). It is also very beautiful, but only has one tall spire that is black with years of coal and other pollutants. It's amazing to walk down the busy city streets and look up to see this gorgeous piece of architecture. And what's so amazing is that the whole old town of Caen is just as beautiful!

 

 

Ok, next up for Part 3 is the castle! I LOVE castles!!!!!

 

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Caen: WWII Memorial Museum (1 of 4 for today)

We woke up to a beautifully sunny but chilly and windy day in Caen this morning. Jackets definitely required! Our first jaunt was to the Caen Memorial Museum, which is basically a WWII museum with an emphasis on D-Day and the whole invasion of Normandy. After a little trouble with the GPS in the car we finally made it and stepped out of the car onto General Eisenhower Esplanade! That's right! The people of Normandy love Americans (and all the Allies really) so much that they named it for him! I can't tell you what a treat it is when we're far from home to see a little reference to a piece of Americana. (It was similar to when we ran across the John Kennedy Museum in Berlin.) Here's a pic of the outside of the museum.

It's a really beautiful building with the flags of the major members of the Allies out front.

There's a large amount of green space, as well as gardens, and walkways around the museum, and it's dotted with sculptures (for example a five foot high gun with the end of the barrel twisted into a knot).

Off to the left of the building is a commemorative row of stones that are behind glass. Each stone has a quote from the WWII leader or general of an Allied country. The USA's was a quote from Eisenhower's "letter to the troops" that immediately made both of us teary eyed. "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you." June 6, 1944

Inside, the museum is just beautiful. It's very similar to a lot of the modern historical museums we've seen in other European cities. It's got a big open main hall (gallery) when you first walk in with a replica of a British Spitfire fighter plane hanging from the tall ceiling. Very cool! Then all of the exhibits are really modern, and interesting, and visually stunning. Here are a few pics of some exhibits. They don't truly show how cool the exhibits are, but at least you get an idea.

 

In this pic I'm standing next to a deactivated floating marine mine that was chained somewhere in the English Channel during the war and washed up on a beach in 1987. Amazing!

OK. That's all for the museum. Part 2 will be about a beautiful abbey.

 

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