welcome to normandy

Reporting live from Rouen, having previously stayed 4 nights at a very pleasant gite in Balleroi, in the heart of the Calvados Departement, a few miles south of Bayeux. Which was naturally our first destination, to see the great tapestry (note: it actually isn't a tapestry at all, but an embroidery)Everyone has heard of this great cultural monument from their childhoods, and hence it had been hyped up massively in my mind. I am delighted to report that it in every way fulfilled my expectations. Not too crowded in the early morning, and with a useful A/V system to explain the profusion of incredibly well preserved images; a winner's view of history of course (it clearly says it was all Harold's fault for renaging on a promise to hand the throne to William, though it doesn't say whether that promise was extracted under duress- well, it wouldn't, would it?)

Our next appointment was at Omaha Beach, now a peaceful and beautiful seaside resort, but on 6th June 1944, the site of the massacre of thousands of American infantrymen. An oblisk marks the place where, after nearly 50% losses, they finally established a beach head. Just before we left for France, we watched a documentary on the Discovery channel, which told the tale of one German soldier who, from a secure position, trained his machine gun on the troops as they disembarked their landing crafts. He may have killed as many as a thousand troops by his own determined efforts. His technique apparently, was to wait until the bow door of the craft fell into the sea and then spray the troops therein. In this way as many as half of them were killed before they even entered the water. Later the same day he was captured and taken to America where, understandably, he kept his extraordinary exploits to himself until long after the war had ended.

The following day we visited Caen and its famous twin abbeys, the Abbaye des Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames, the latter of which, founded in 1062 by Matilda, wife of William the Conquerer, is, with its amazing, pure white limestone Romanesque arches, one of the most wonderful pieces of architecture I have ever seen.

Now we are in Rouen, staying at the sumptous Hotel Bourgtheroulde (pronounced, interestingly, "Bortord") in the city centre. Formerly a home for the high nobility of France in the 16th century, now a place where you can secure a reasonably good cocktail, and within sight of the famous cathedral, perhaps the ultimate achievement of Gothic architecture in the whole of Europe. We did a lightning visit this afternoon, after we had dried off from having been thoroughly drenched on our way to the Satie museum in Honfleur. Tomorrow we shall give it a lengthier appraisal. Please see subsequent blogs for more detail on this and other wonders, like the site of the burning at the stake of Jeanne d'Arc, just a couple of hundred yards from here.