Normandy

Normandy

Telen looking at Caen from William's Castle

Caen (pronounced “Kon”) and Normandy have a different personality from the south.  Most likely this is because it has been beaten up severely in the past little while.  Being abused does tend to change one’s attitude towards life.  Caen, especially, must have a neurosis because it was not just the nasty Nazi’s who beat the hell out of it but also the friendly Brits and Canadians who bombed it back to the Stone Age in an effort to bloody the nose of those Nazi’s.

Flags and Flowers outside the Abbey of Men.  Canadian Flag on the far right of the flags

Caen was the Canadian’s goal at D-Day.   We were supposed to reach there and roust the Nazis out on June 6, 1944.  We didn’t make it right away so the Nazis dug in and fought back until we leveled the town by bombing the hills out of it.  The French have since rebuilt it.  Unlike the other cities in France that we have visited which have been mostly medieval, Caen is mostly post-war.  That means it does not have the soul the other towns do.  That is peculiar because Caen has a long history dating back to pre-Roman times.

The Celts and Gauls lived and fought here.  Actually Celts and Gauls are the same people – the Greeks called them Celts and the Romans called them Gauls (probably because they had no manners).  The Romans came and defeated the Gauls and made them Romans.  Then the Vikings showed up and the King of France gave them a piece of land that they called Normandy and then they stayed and became Normans.  So we have the descendants of a lot of really scrappy fighters living here right across the channel from Jolly Old.  If I were the King of England, I’d be worried.

Caen is where William the Bastard became William the Conqueror (the French called him Guillaume).  He earned that nickname because he conquered England (see - I told you the King of England should be worried).  He built a castle here and is buried at the Abbey of Men in Caen. 

William the Conquerer's Castle.  That is his car at the bottom of the steps.

Incidentally William married his cousin Matilda.  The Pope did not think that was Kosher (not that Popes ever thought anything was Kosher – Kosher is Jewish) and told William that he was peeved.  William was not keen on having a peeved Pope because that could mean excommunication – which in that day meant going completely to Hell - so he built an Abbey of Women to appease the peeved Pope.  I am not sure I understand how building this Abbey was going to make things right with the Pope but then I never understood that church thingy anyway.

Speaking of churches…in spite of our best efforts to flatten the town it has kept a lot of very impressive churches.  Most of them are built in the Gothic style, which gives them an imposing but graceful appearance.  In spite of the beliefs of those who go around wearing white make-up and black eye-liner Gothic architecture is meant to be light, airy and with lots of windows to let light in.  Sorry, Goths, you are going to have to change your name to Romans – Romanesque architecture is the dark one with small rounded windows.  Everyone is going to be confused between you and those people with the big helmets and short swords.  I would just give it up – you’ve been watching too many vampire movies anyway.

St. Peter's Church in Caen.  Gothic Architecture.  Notice the white make-up and black eye-liner.

From Caen we took a trip to Mont St. Michel.  Now THAT is impressive.  Mont St. Michel is built on a part-time island.  I say part-time because when the tide is in it is an island and when the tide it out it is a peninsula.  The latest census shows that it has a population of 27 and 14 of those are monks.  It gets 2 million tourists per year so those 13 people are extraordinarily busy.  It is the second most visited monument in France after the Eiffel Tower.

Mont St.Michel with the tide out.

The legend is that the Archangel Michael fought the devil there for 7 days and finally prevailed.  He was so proud of himself that he went to the Abbott of the nearby town and asked him to build a church on the island to commemorate his victory.   Michael had to burn the Abbott on the head with his finger to get him to build it. I wonder how come it took Michael 7 days to defeat the devil if he had the power of God behind him and why he needed the Abbott to build him a church?  Being an Archangel he could just whipped one up himself in a few minutes.  How come no one noticed the fight?  I think a mano-a-mano scrap between an Archangel and the devil would have produced some pyrotechnics and some noise.  People should have noticed.  It’s a bit sad that poor Michael had to ask for something to commemorate his victory.  I feel bad for the poor Archangel.  It is a fun story anyway - kind of like Spiderman vs. the Green Goblin.

Looking out over the Norman countryside from the Ramparts of the Fortress of Mont St.Michel

Mont. St. Michel is truly amazing.  It seems to climb straight up out of the ocean.  On the top is the Abbey, below that is the Village and below that is the Fortress.  The majority of the architecture is Gothic but there are still some bits of it that are Romanesque.  There is no level ground in the structure – the streets are narrow, winding and paved with stairs. 

It is a long way to the top. 

Our shuttle driver took us into the village and I was overwhelmed with the prospect of trying to make my way all the way to the top when I looked at the way the street was so crowded.  Our driver smiled and slid into a narrow crevice that was essentially invisible from virtually any angle and had steps going up.  We began the climb.  Our group consisted of a couple from Melbourne Australia, a young Parisian, a couple from Indiana USA and ourselves.  The Aus. were both slender and fit and headed up the stairs like they were strolling across the outback.  Our Parisian friend quickly followed.  Telen, of course, went up the stairs like there was chow mien at the top and I followed her like a British Bulldog chasing a greyhound. The US couple were not so fortunate.  We all had some concerns about them getting stuck and/or having a cardiac arrest on the stairs.  We all made it to the top however, and thanks to the guide, we were able to by-pass not only the crowds in the street but also the line-up for tickets into the Abbey.  It is kind of a superior feeling to walk past all these people waiting in line, looking down your nose at them and flipping your hair with a little sneer.  Ok, maybe I didn’t flip my hair and looking down my nose tends to make me cross-eyed but you get the idea.

working our way to the top. This is one of the Aus

The Abbey is beautiful but it is quite cold and damp.  I imagine the monks that lived there spent a lot of their time shivering.  There are 14 Benedictine monks – both male and female – that still live there.  I cannot imagine how they could spend their time in their devotions when there are so many tourists wandering about.  I envision some poor monk kneeling in a quiet spot deep in prayer with people walking by, making loud remarks and taking his photo.  He would have to develop a very special form of meditation.

Telen playing the Real Estate Agent in Mont St.Michel.
"See - the water still works"

This is one of the fireplaces where the food was made.  The monks had a recipe for Soupe Chinoise.  I am not sure this is what they meant.  

The trip to Mont. St. Michel was well worth the time. It is hard to say what is so captivating about Mont St. Michel.  Certainly it feels more capitalistic than spiritual with all the silly souvenir shops.  We arrived there on a long weekend and the place was already packed tight with tourists and the tours from Paris had not arrived yet.  It was crowded and going to get worse.  I hate crowds and I dislike tacky tourist traps.  But I liked it nevertheless. The view from the top is quite amazing and you cannot capture it in photographs.  The uniqueness, the majesty and the beauty of Mont Ste. Michel seem to be beyond our attempts to drag it down into tawdry mediocrity.

Speaking of tawdry mediocrity...