Ideally located in the heart of Normandy, two hours from Paris and just 10 minutes away from the beaches, Caen, William the Conqueror’s hometown, is a lively and dynamic city.
Historically, it was largely due to William the Conqueror that Caen grew into a great city beside the River Orne. William’s wife, Matilda of Flanders, was also involved. Each commissioned a grand abbey, the Men’s Abbey for William and the Women’s Abbey for Matilda, both of which remain hugely impressive places to this day. Between them, the many-turreted Caen Castle was one of the most important in the duchy of Normandy; it now houses two museums.
Famously, the first crucial, successful action of the D-Day operations on 6 June 1944 was when the British 6th Airborne Division secured the bridges downstream of Caen, between the towns of Bénouville and Ranville. Bénouville Bridge over the Caen Canal was renamed Pegasus Bridge after the emblem of the mythological flying horse used by the British airborne forces.
Unfortunately, Caen would not be liberated rapidly. After bitter fighting and horrific destruction, Caen was liberated on 9 July 1944. Much of the town had been destroyed. That said, some of Caen’s greatest monuments survived and much of the town was rebuilt in fine Caen stone (incidentally, the Tower of London, commissioned by William the Conqueror in the 1070s, was also largely built from Caen stone). Everything considered, Caen’s city centre was well restored post-war and remains an attractive place to visit, with plenty of museums, shops, restaurants and public gardens, plus the lively nightlife you’d expect from a university town.
The Mémorial de Caen is the largest museum in France dedicated to 20th-century history, commemorating in particular World War II, D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. If you’re visiting Normandy and find yourself near Caen, this museum is a must-see, and a fascinating way to spend an afternoon.
We step up to the Esplanade Eisenhower named after the Supreme Commander in 1944. Before us is the smooth stone cliff face of the Memorial. A jagged gash splits it apart, and either side a huge inscription in capital letters spells out the solemn words across the ripped facade: ‘Suffering shattered me, brotherhood raised me up, and from my wound spurted forth a flood of freedom’. Now we are invited to step into that wound of history – and it will be bloody.
Just as the architecture symbolises the irruption of war into peace, so the site of the Memorial was chosen as a symbol: bang on top of the German General Richter’s underground headquarters in a former Caen stone quarry. He commanded the principal defending division of the D-Day Landing Beaches – which would be almost wiped out that day.
When I visited Caen, I went to the beautiful park which is built on a landfill! It’s hard to believe that this tranquil mosaic of gardens northwest of the centre was once the site of the city dump and waste incinerators! The park was opened in 1994 to commemorate D-Day, and the name, “Hill of the Birds” is actually a reference to the mounds of rubbish that attracted flocks of birds.
Now it’s a place of repose for families and couples, with a large rose garden, a boxwood maze, a scale model of Normandy and several other small gardens commemorating cities around Normandy and Caen’s twin towns.
If you have kids in tow, call in at the zoo, which has tame farmyard animals for them to meet.
