Twilight Zone

Well today was pretty bizarre. It was a pretty long day overall, and I was on lots of trains. I woke up and got on a train from Rouen to Paris. Arriving in Paris, I got onto a subway train. At the Montparnasse train station I switched to another subway train. At least that one was line 4, on which I felt like I was on my home turf. I got to my hotel, and had a brief scare when the receptionist couldn’t find any evidence of my reservation. I left my hotel room and back onto the subway train, back to Montparnasse. There, I boarded a train to Chartres.

A little taste of home, perhaps?

 I got to Chartres, which boasts probably the greatest cathedral in all of France. The problem with this one? The entire façade was boarded off and covered in scaffolding. So those world famous portal carvings? Completely hidden from sight. That beautiful west rose window, blocked completely from what little light there was outside.

That's a pretty funny looking gargoyle you got there.

 

 And about a third of the inside of the church was completely blocked off and out of sight. But don’t get me wrong – it was still amazing and the coolest church I’ve been in in France. All of the stained glass is intact, so the interior of the church is much darker than these other churches with completely clear windows.

That white thing at the end is a wall.

 The original cathedral in Chartres held the Veil of the Virgin Mary, but burned down in 1194, presumably taking the veil with it. While sifting through the ashes of the cathedral, the monks miraculously found the veil in perfect condition. Word spread and the monks raked in a huge amount of donations to build the new cathedral.

That's not much of a veil.

This cathedral dwarfs its city. It was built large to accommodate a huge amount of pilgrims who would come to see the veil.  The cathedral also has an underground chapel, which I don’t know much about yet. But it was pretty cool, and almost devoid of any people when I discovered it, which always adds to the atmosphere.

There’s not much else to see in Chartres, so I headed back to the train station. To continue the bizarre theme of the day, I ended up throwing a guy out of the building. He was slapping a girl around, and a bunch of other girls jumped in and he backed off and walked out. He came back while the girls were calling the police and hit the girl again, at which point I pushed him out the door. He disappeared. Then, a pair of teenage-looking guys came through the door wearing fake blood smeared all over their faces. What the hell is wrong with Chartres?

Finally I got on my train to Paris, my sixth of the day. Got to Paris, and had to wait in line to buy my subway ticket. After standing there for 30 minutes, I finally got up to the ticket machine, which immediately changed its screed to “Out of Order.” Really? Another line for about 20 minutes before I could get my ticket. Got on my subway train (7^th train of the day), and picked up some Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner. Yes, that’s right. French Kentucky Fried Chicken. What a day, huh? 

Also, my internet sucks. So don't be surprised if there aren't many updates over the next few days.

The Portal in the Sun

Rouen is actually pretty disappointing. For a city so big, there’s not a whole lot to do here – there’s not even much shopping apart from women’s clothing stores (and really, every woman’s clothing store in France is in reality a lingerie store). Don’t get me wrong… the cathedral is AMAZING, but there isn’t really anything else. I mean, there’s not even a whole lot of Jeanne d’Arc stuff here, and this is the city in which she was burned. There’s the Jeanne d’Arc church, which is very modern and very hideous, that I didn’t even take a picture of. But there are a lot of old-school half-timbered buildings.

Very narrow streets.

 Rouen was the second largest city in France during the Middle Ages, and therefore has a very prominent cathedral. The cathedral has seen better days, and many of the medieval buildings in Rouen are pitch-black with dirt. Notre Dame de Rouen is at least being cleaned, but that means that I also have to deal with lots of scaffolding and also a construction site directly adjacent to it.

Well, sorry, so the sun's not actually shining on the portal...

 By this point, the cathedral pictures have to be getting pretty tiring. But there’s some interesting stuff in here, I promise. Remember I said that the cathedral in Pau lost its steeples in a storm in 1999? And remember the steeple of the cathedral in Bayonne came crashing through the roof in that same storm? Well, it must have been one hell of a storm because it caused the same problem in this cathedral on the other side of the country.

That white spot's where it collapsed through.

 This cathedral also has a pair of interesting tombs. The first belongs to Rollo. Back in the early 900s, Rollo was a Viking chieftain who enjoyed terrorizing the French countryside. When he was defeated in 911 by the French king Charles the Simple, he agreed to convert to Christianity and swear allegiance to Charles. He settled with his Norsemen around Rouen, and the area became known as Normandy. Rollo became the first Duke of Normandy.

And people have apparently stolen everything but his femur...

 The other tomb belongs to Richard Plantagenet. You might know him better as Richard the Lionheart. He became King of England, but he also happened to be Duke of Normandy, Brittany, and the Aquitaine as well as Count of Anjou. He was famous for his crusade to the Middle East, though most people view it as a complete failure. He died in 1199 while besieging Chateau Châlus-Chabrol.

The Lion-Heart is here, the rest of Richard's body lies elsewhere.

 The other interesting historical site in Rouen is now actually an art school. Back in the 1300s it was a mass grave for plague victims. As I said, Rouen was one of the largest cities in Europe with about 40,000 people living here. About 2/3 of them died during the plague. The regular cemeteries couldn’t keep up with the mounting casualties, so this courtyard was used as a mass grave. Bodies were dumped into the trench and soaked with liquid lime to speed up the decay. The buildings surrounding the courtyard are decorated with skulls, crossbones, and undertakers tools as well as figures taking part in the danse macabre, or dance of death. It was a nice experience because nobody else was there and there was no street noise, so it was deathly silent. I heard that there was supposed to be a mummified black cat there somewhere, but I couldn’t find it.

For some reason, it was much creepier in person.

 Tomorrow will be a busy day. I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to head first to my hotel in Paris and then to Chartres, or if I’m going to try and carry my luggage through the cathedral there. I’m leaning more towards Paris first. I’m just glad I don’t have to book any more hotels.

But I doubt I'll have such a nice view out my window.

The Longest Day

Today was a day full of modern history. Caen, as I’ve mentioned before, has become my home-base for exploring the D-Day Beaches. I started at the Memorial du Caen, which is actually their World War II museum. The whole day was a bit rushed, which sucks. I couldn’t get all the pictures I would have liked. But at least I got to see it all, which is better than I could have done from Bayeux.

And of course, they've got a plane crashing through the lobby.

 The museum was not quite as nice as I expected. There was a lot of posters and newspapers, but not a lot of interesting artifacts or other media. It was a nice building and a nice presentation at least. There was an interesting poster towards the end. It reminds me of all the 9/11 stuff.

Translation: Cowards! Never Forget!

 Speaking of 9/11 stuff, the museum also had an exhibition on political cartoons for some reason. I got to see some political cartoons from other countries criticizing the US for its reaction to 9/11 and the war in Iraq. It was not exactly a refreshing moment. After looking at those, I watched a video called Espérance, or “Hope.” Was the most depressing film I’ve ever seen with the intent to inspire hope for the future.

But this is hilarious.

 Finally, it was time to leave on my tour of the D-Day Beaches. I got stuck as the only American/ English speaking person in my tour group, so we did the whole thing in French. Actually, I preferred it that way, because I could not understand the tour guide when she spoke English. I’d guess she learned English in England, because she had a horrible half-French-half-British accent whenever she spoke in English. Anyway, the first stop was at Arromanches, where we could see the remains of the artificial harbor built by the allies.

Yep, it's some concrete in the water.

 The Allies chose to land on the beaches of Normandy and build their own ports because it was nearly impossible to seize a port from the Germans. So the Allies built hundreds of hollow concrete blocks and they towed them across La Manche (the English Channel). They sunk them to create a breakwater for a large harbor. They then brought in floating docks and pontoon bridges onto which they could unload their tanks, jeeps, rations, ammunition, and other supplies.

Other supplies... like a small village.

After Arromanches, we headed to Longues-sur-Mer, which contains a battery of Nazi artillery. It’s the only place in Normandy where the original artillery is still in place. This battery was situated between Gold Beach (where the British landed) and Omaha Beach. They could fire up to 13 miles, and caused quite a bit of havoc for both Gold and Omaha.

And they look pretty cool, too.

 From Longues-sur-Mer we went to the US Cemetery which overlooks Omaha Beach. 9,383 men lay buried there, as well as four women. The women were US Red Cross workers who died in a Jeep crash shortly after the battle of Normandy. The site has been given over to the US Government as a gift from France. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is buried somewhere there, but I have no idea where.

The obligatory photo.

We headed down to Omaha Beach at Vierville-sur-Mer. I must say that Omaha Beach was quite a letdown. The beach is prolific in World War II lore, but in the modern day it’s really just a beach. To be fair, the Vierville-sur-Mer span of Omaha Beach was the least defended part, but it took a lot of work to spot the defenses.

Look closely for bunkers on the beach. Good luck finding the ones in the hills.

 The last stop was Pointe du Hoc. This plateau was assaulted by the US Rangers during the D-Day Invasion. The Rangers were appointed with the task of taking the most heavily fortified part of the Nazi defenses with the ultimate goal of neutralizing the heavy artillery that was stationed there. They scaled the cliff face using grappling hooks and fire ladders. About 200 of the 300 total Rangers were killed during the assault, and when they were finally victorious, the Rangers found that the artillery pieces had been moved by the Germans well before June 6.

Pointe du Hoc from Omaha Beach.

Inscription on the dagger.

 The Pointe du Hoc was also the most bombarded stretch of land during the D-Day Invasion. It was hit by about 10,000 tons of bombs, and still shows the damage today. The place is pock-marked with massive craters and destroyed bunkers, all of which have been left exactly as they were at the end of the battle (minus of course the weapons and the mangled bodies).

Those aren't natural hills...

 So I got to see a lot today. And then I came home to my hotel and it fell apart on me. There’s no longer a hotel WiFi signal, so I don’t know how I’m going to plan out tomorrow’s trip to Rouen. Also, my toilet backed up into the shower while I was trying to take a shower, which was pretty freaking disgusting. So somehow I’m going to make it to yet another town in the morning, and maybe you’ll hear from me soon?

Conqueror Country

Today I woke up in Bayeux, which I can describe the city of the “deeds of the Conqueror.” I then went to Caen, which we can call the “home of the Conqueror.” The city is dominated by three historic monuments, all built by William the Conqueror between 1060-1066. Other than those monuments and a hand-full of other churches, the city is thoroughly modern. Caen was mostly destroyed in the aftermath of D-Day, which is why Caen is also the home of one of the largest D-Day museums in the world. But that’s for tomorrow.

The Norman flag looks suspiciously English...

 The first of the three monuments is the Chateau Ducal, or the Duke’s Castle. It is the center of the city and remains one of the largest medieval fortifications in all of Europe. William was born “William the Bastard,” his father was the Duke of Normandy but his mother was from a small family from Calais (I think). When his father died, William managed to take control of Normandy. His capital was at Rouen (I will go there later), but he made his home in Caen.

Don't mind my pinky, it's just blotting out the sun so you can see the castle.

 Most of the castle still exists, and it houses a Museum of Modern Arts and a Museum of Norman History, neither of which was all that great. The Museum of Normandy at least had a cool exhibit on the burial of an old blacksmith/goldsmith. However, the parts of the castle which no longer exist are the donjon (not a dungeon, it’s a keep. Think like the Tower of London) and the Ducal Palace. That’s right, William’s house no longer exists.

That would be Will's house.

 The other two monuments in the city were built by William and his queen, Mathilde of Flanders. They were two abbeys, built to help alleviate their guilt over something they did. William dedicated the Abbaie aux Hommes (Men’s Abbey) and Mathilde dedicated the Abbaie aux Dames (Women’s Abbey). I arrived first at the Men’s Abbey, but had to wait outside because there was a funeral going on inside. Once inside, it was basically another gothic cathedral, except for one thing, which I’ll touch on later.

Meh, nothing new at this point...

 Across town was the Women’s Abbey, which was almost entirely Romanesque. The ceiling over the nave seems to be more recent than the rest, which makes sense because the Normans typically used wooden roofs. This abbey was pretty small, but the stained glass windows in the apse were absolutely awesome. They flooded the entire altar area with red light.

A lot of light despite the small windows.

 Remember yesterday when I was trying to explain the difference between Romanesque vaults and Gothic vaults? As it turns out the Women’s Abbey included the best photo to demonstrate it. Seriously, this photo is something I’m going to keep for when I try to teach it to a bunch of stupid high-schoolers.

Vault above: ribbed. Vaults below: groined.

 Okay, so when I said that William and Mathilde felt guilty over something? It was that they happened to be first cousins. So they built churches so that God wouldn’t smite them. And when I said that Caen was William’s home? It still is. William and Mathilde are both buried in their respective abbeys. So all in all, the past two days have been pretty amazing for me.

Notice that William liked Normandy better than England.

And notice Mathilde's much less impressive treatment.

 I had hoped to see the castle lit up at night, but Caen apparently can’t afford to illuminate its historical sites. I don’t know, but it was pretty disappointing. Tomorrow I’m going to the D-Day beaches, so it should be quite an exciting day. Onward ho!