Oh the history...

We had the past three days off from class and this fact meant that a little touring was in order. On Friday, I took a leisurely day in the morning and in the afternoon, I visited the chateau Ducal in Caen. This castle, one of many built by William the Conqueror, is nearly one thousand years old. It houses the Musee de Normandie and I was also able to visit a special exhibit about the Gaul's presence in Caen and the Normandy region. There were burials with skeletons and various remains of this civilization from the Bronze Age up through the Roman occupation. These relics and pieces date back over 2000 years and some more than 3500 years. The history that exists in Europe is truly one of its most amazing assets. Just to be on the ramparts of the castle and look through the various archery windows and think about what it must have taken to build this castle is overwhelming.

On Saturday, a group of individuals from our seminar ventured to Bayeux, France. Famous for the Bayeux tapestry that was displayed once a year in the cathedral at the city center. we toured the tapestry which is 70 meters in length. It is hand embroidered and has been the subject of many historical questions. The shear fact that this tapestry is nearly 1000 years old is astounding. As you walk around the piece, a narration gives you a blow by blow story of the Battle of Hastings and the events that lead up to the war. Great thanks to William the Conqueror because if he did not win the war in 1066, we English speakers would be much more Germanic in our approach to the English language, thus our language is greatly influenced from the French language. I digress, the most amazing thing is to simply be in the presence of such an amazing piece of history. We strolled through the city and in doing so had a great conversation with a 94 year old man who was a soldier during the second World War and served five years in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany. He was really like a walking history book and extremely welcoming of Americans and the fact that we spoke French didn't hurt either.

Today I thought was going to be a wash, however I started my day finally and on a whim visited the Abbaye aux Hommes, which was again built by William the Conqueror. This site is where he is buried as well. This abbey was built along with the Abbaye aux Dames in order to bribe the pope at the time to allow him to marry his love, Mathilde. The pope forbade it at first but after these two abbeys were constructed and given to the church, he consented (such a nice guy)! I should not leave out that Mathilde was Williams cousin, an interesting tidbit. The originally abbey dates from the 1080's and therefore it is itself nearly one thousand years old. It is now the hotel de ville (town hall) and is pretty amazing in its architecture. The tours are free on Sunday so this was a win-win on all accounts.

While I am here to study World War II and the legacy of the dark years, it was a great experience to take a journey back in time in order to visit these beautiful places. It turned out to be overall good weather. It rains from time to time but just as quickly as the rain comes, it goes and the sun shines again. I was able to live history this weekend and it pretty amazing!