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I have to say that this weekend was really really cool ! I could see my dad, visited the Ducal Castle with him and saw how was the city of Caen.
Ok, let's begin with the Hotel first. Ha ha, I don't know if this is by chance or what, but I happened to stay at the Hotel where my mom had stayed during her last visit in Caen. My dad tried many hotels before choosing this one, just to find a best for me. "The best" here means that he wanted to find a safe, clean, "sympa", near the down town and not too expensive. This hotel was really cool, small but cute and clean, very calm and safe. The best thing was that this hotel was just about 5 minutes from the Ducal Castle and only about 10 minutes by tramway from my dad's university.
I did not have enough time to go visit all the churches and abbey in Caen. To bad that the weather was suck, it was rainy all day long and very cold. The fact is that France has been facing a very annoying weather these days. There are hailstones and snow somewhere in France and it's very very cold. Even if I had time to go to the abbeys, I would not have enough courage to walk in such a heavy rain and a freezing wind just to have some medieval atmosphere in spite of my passion for the Middle Ages.
The only thing that I had time to really visit was the Ducal Castle, the fortress built by Guillaume le Conquérant in 1060. This castle has gone through many restorations and fortifications from the 11th century until now. Some great part have been destroyed after the French Revolution in 1789 (those “stupid” republicans decided to erase all the marks that reminded the ancient regime) and shared the same fate as many other monuments of Caen, the castle was ruined buy the WWII. But fortunately enough, the walls, the ramparts, the donjons, some main gates and towers still survive.
I had a pretty wonderful moment there, passing under the gates, walking round the towers, running by the bridges and imagining all the medieval battles I had seen in the films, in spite of the annoying rain. The gates, the towers and the keeps reminded me of the Helm's Deep battle scenes in The Two Towers and the war of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. If you are someone who also loves those kinds of ambiance, you will understand how fascinating it felt like. When the wind blew through your hair and froze your ears, you would understand how were the emotions of a medieval soldier standing there alone, day by day and watching the unreachable horizon.
When I run up the stoned stair case to go to one of the keeps, I recalled a scene in The Two Towers, where the elves’ leader was killed by an Uruk Hai’s narrow. He fell in Aragorn’s arms and died.
Each stone there has witnessed a part of humanity's history and stands still while human society has changed. The Ducal Castle is certainly neither a particularly beautiful fortress nor a well known fortification of Medieval France, and of course this castle can not be compared either to the castles and fortresses of England, but at least it was nice and I could realise one of my dreams, which was to go, to see with my own eyes, to touch with my own hands a medieval castle.
I dedicate this entry to Thao Ma, who will certainly like to wander in a medieval site and let the ambiance overwhelm her. Hope that one day we can promenade together. I thought of you so much when I passed this gate. I knew that you would be very excited going there and touching the stones with your own hands.