Caen Adventure

Today I went with 4 students to see my friend Nicole and spend the day in Caen, in the Basse-Normandie region (lower Normandy, on the west coast of France). We left Cité U. at 7 am to get an 8:00 train from Gare St-Lazare. I was worried that we'd be late; in the end we were on time but the train was late! The weather in France has been very stormy the past few days and there were problems with loss of power on some lines. I'm not sure if that was the case on our train but in the end we were delayed about 45 minutes. The delay did not stop the students from sleeping through almost the entire train trip. I don't blame them--trains are very relaxing! Nice big seats, quiet, pretty scenery. 

Nicole was waiting to meet us at the station and we hustled right off to the Men's Abbey (l'Abbaye aux Hommes) where she had arranged us a tour in English with the help of a gentleman who lives in her building. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgable and told us a lot of interesting facts about the abbey in a short time. It was a good mix of historical, architectural, and religious description. We learned, for instance, that today only William the Conqueror's thigh bone is buried in his tomb. His original tomb was destroyed when the abbey was sacked during the Revolution. This is his tomb as it exists today:

This is looking back toward the abbey entrance from the tomb:

And this is the pre-Vatican II altar:

One of the many things we learned a little about today was Vatican II and the liturgical reforms involved in it--such as moving the altar closer to the congregation and turning it around. 

Our tour guide told us his background was in international business but he was obviously a giant freelance humanist brain of the kind that can ask "What do you mean you don't speak Latin?" and make you think "He's right, I should learn Latin!"

After the tour it was lunch time and we wanted something quick and inexpensive so we opted for a French classic: McDonald's. There went my "no American fast food in France" streak. But we all had a nice time chatting with Nicole and taking a break. It was also good to get indoors; unfortunately it rained on and off all day in typical Norman unpredictable-weather fashion. So we stayed for a while and got coffees and pastries (McCafé in France is the real deal) before heading on to the château. 

The château in Caen is of course William the Conqueror's castle and dates back accordingly. It is not, therefore, an elaborate confection like Chambord but is obviously a fortress:

The château and its outbuildings now house the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée de Caen, each of which had special exhibitions in addition to their permanent collection. So we saw a great selection of Impressionist paintings--including many depictions of Normandy beaches--and an exhibit of early color photographs from the turn of the 20C. I could not take pictures in the special exhibitions but in the permanent collection I photographed this painting because it made me laugh:

It's just titled "Man with Fig" and you can see he is holding a fig in one hand and making the rude gesture of "the fig" with the other. I immediately thought of Iago: "Virtue? A fig! Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus."

We also got to climb around the château a bit and take a few more pictures: 

(You can see how pleasant the weather was not--though it helped me to imagine William and his troops roughing it in a chilly castle with not even a little Facebook to help pass the time.)

That's Jessica standing in the other tower!

Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the train station and return to Paris. We rode the tram and got off into a DOWNPOUR. It was barely sprinkling when we got on; when we got off we needed an ark. And a snorkel mask. And waders. Nicole said her goodbyes and rushed off to get back to her car. We stood under the tram shelter for a few minutes till the rain slacked a little and then dashed into the station. Our wet feet led us into the station café for dinner (a slice of pie is a perfectly cromulent dinner choice) and then onto the train. 

Our seats are in a compartment. We feel very Harry Potter! Just waiting for the trolley to come around and sell us some chocolate frogs.