I decided one day in France to ditch the family wagon atmosphere of home and head to Bayeux and Caen a seule. With the others in tow we'd leave the house by 11 and be home by 4. My dad's first question at our destination would be 'where are we having lunch?' and we'd waste 2 of our five hours sitting at a restaurant table. The decision to be selfishly solo on this day lead to a memorable tour of a relic of William the Conqueror.
The Abbaye aux Hommes was established by Bill in the 11th century with a view to atoning for the 'sin' of marrying his quite distant cousin Matilda. It was governed by abbots and the abbey was very powerful during the Middle Ages. Bill's original installation was rebuilt in the 18th century after destruction during various 16th century wars, and so no longer resembles the building that he once knew. His grave in the Eglise St-Etienne (the consecration of which he attended in 1077) has been ransacked over the centuries and now contains only his thigh bone. The Abbaye became a school in 1804 (the Lycee Imperial) and was so until the 1960s.
I couldn't find the door to enter the church and got myself waylayed in the direction of the Abbaye. It now houses the offices of the Caen city council. A group of people were waiting in a side room to the right of the main entrance and they turned out to be waiting for a tour of the building. I don't know what cog slipped in my brain but I paid my 2 euros and joined the group.
The tour turned out to be all in French! Quite a test for my French Z level of fluency. Not a single word in English was uttered.
We saw many parts of the Abbaye otherwise hidden from the public and its history slowly revealed itself. It is built of creamy Caen stone and extremely beautiful. I loved the cloisters (fuzzy picture above) in particular as well as the salon where civil marriages are conducted. I also loved the wood-panelled walls, the staircases that hang in the hair (no cement was used to join the blocks of stone) and the marble floors.
A lovely surprise for a lovely solo day in Normandy ...
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