After history class today, we (well, four out of the eight of us) went on a guided tour (English! Yes! I love it, because then I don't miss anything!) of the history of the city.
The only thing I didn't like about the tour was that we visited churches and I was unable to really spend time in them and get awesome pictures of everything I wanted.
St. Pierre (St. Peter) Church. It was the first main church in Caen.
I got a better picture of the front door. It was hard to not get French pedestrians in my pictures. St. Pierre is in the middle of the town center, so it's always really busy.
The main steeple (tower) is under construction...well, not really construction. It's being renovated. The church is that old.
The inside of the church:
Like a lot of churches, there is more than one style. In St. Pierre, I think our guide, Dominique, said that there are two different Gothic styles and a bit of Italian too (on the outside). If you look to the left up on the wall, you can see the new organ, which was added in the 1970s. The original organ was up high on the back wall (previous picture). This new organ can be controlled by a computer anywhere in the world. It's almost depressing that there doesn't have to be an organist. I don't even know if you can play that organ...
The left hallway of St. Pierre's has many statues of saints. Again, we walked through way too fast.
And along the left wall, there were pictures. Mostly they were on the history of the church. Here is the original statue of St. Pierre (Peter).
And in another little nook on the left was a picture of the original building. Yes! There is water! You would take your boat to church. They actually called this part of Caen the "French Venice". Later, the people of Caen covered the river and built a road (which is the same road that the tram I take to school travels). The river was covered for several reasons, but mostly because it was contaminated so much (people always throwing trash and other things out their window) and because it wasn't easy to take transportation on it after several centuries.
Here you can kind of see the statues and gargoyles on the outside.
You can tell by the windows (the bottom two) that the styles changed. I think the one on the right is "flamboyant", because the top of the windows look like flames. I'm not good at architecture...
Then, farther down, you can see the architecture changes again. I believe that this is the Italian style. And, actually, if you look hard, this isn't very Christian. There are little kids playing, and the statues at the top are gods. And I thought I saw something that resembled Buddha, but our guide didn't call them that. I'm really disappointed.
So, here's the last original tower of the city when William the Conqueror (and I think a little before him) ruled.
Okay, you still see the tower on the left? And the building on the right? So, there was another tower where the building is now. And between the two towers, there would be a chain, so that the people in boats who wanted to enter the city had to pay (like a toll road, but for boats). So, yes. The road shown here would be the river. (to the left is a tram/bus stop).
So, we'd be walking down the street, and all of a sudden, Dominique would turn into these little doors that you'd think were private property. Actually, I think that Charlotte was surprised sometimes when we would suddenly disappear into a doorway (university student, remember? Charlotte and Benoit are the French students who accompany us everywhere). And it would open up into a little courtyard, which a really rich Frenchman had constructed for his home. Today, the "courtyard" (not what they are, but that's what I'm calling them) is the Tourist office.
So, the rich guy for this courtyard dedicated one of the walls (below) to justice and strength and intelligence. The upper statues: on the left is the man's coat of arms; on the right is his wife's. Lower level: A statue of David holding Goliath's head on the left; a statue of Judith holding...I can't remember...I don't know that Bible story that well...but it's about Judith, who outwitted a king and killed him after he fell asleep after drinking a lot and basically saved the Israelites. I think that she was chosen to show that intelligence is just as strong as physical strength, because Caen is a city all about intelligence (the first thing built in the city was the University, which was the third oldest University in all of France, after Paris and...Marseilles, I think?)
And this wall was dedicated to music. This rich guy (man, I wish I could remember his name, but it was really complicated) loved studying Greek mythology. So there are some Greek gods up there:
And some other figures representing music are here. And on the right and left at the bottom, are quarry men, who, Dominique said, were thought to be the first to make music. I have such a vision of the Seven Dwarfs right now..."We dig, dig, dig..."
Some information about this courtyard (English is on the right):
The outside of the courtyard = the Tourist office.
Farther down, we can see Notre Dame de la Froide Literally, Our Lady of the Cold. Cold is in reference to the name of the street. More on this later.
An original building that had just been renovated. This was one of the few buildings that survived bombings in WWII. (The other side of the building is under renovation now).
Notre Dame de la Froide again:
Information on the "Cold Road" (La Rue Froide):
Then we turned down the street where the original University of Caen was located.
The top of the buildings along the road of the old university, which weren't destroyed in the bombings:
This is the bottom of the building in the picture above. I took this picture to show that the people would live in the top of the buildings and then go downstairs for their shops. I don't know if people still live in the floors above...
Another courtyard, one that was for a really wealthy family. So, straight ahead is where the family would live. On the left was were there were little shops ( I think? Not shops as in shopping, but like work places. Maybe for the servants?) and on the left is a well!
The well:
A better view of the street in the courtyard:
Back on the street. So, the street is still really full of book shops (librairies are book shops, not libraries. "Library" is "bibliotheque" in French), and printing places just like it was when the university first opened in Caen.
"Livres" = "books" :
I think the University was located on this road at one point:
Information on the original University:
Sainte Sauveur is the picture below. Okay, so remember "Notre Dame de la Froide" church from earlier? So, that was its original name. Now people call it Sainte Sauveur. Because, during the French Resistance, when everyone revolted against the Catholic Church, they shut down a lot of churches. One of them was the original Sainte Sauveur (picture below). So, the parishioners moved to Notre Dame de la Froide and just called it Sainte Sauveur. But...that is so confusing! I'm calling the other Notre Dame de la Froide and this one (below) Sainte Sauveur for clarity.
So, when they shut the churches, like Sainte Sauveur, the French government and people didn't want to tear them down, so they used the buildings mostly for civil things: government meetings and social gatherings. Today, Sainte Sauveur is still used like that: for exhibitions of things and meetings for the public, but they have restored the inside to look like it's original structure. It's just that there isn't any original furniture...or anything...from when it was built. Crazy protestants. Didn't you realize that it wasn't our fault (laymen talking here) that the French royalty basically took over the Church in France? Same thing happened in England...
The garden outside Sainte Sauveur was destroyed and the people of Caen consructed buildings. But then, the government was like "My bad. We should've kept it the way it was to preserve history." So, those people who lived around the garden had to give the property back and rebuild their houses again. Here's a few pictures of the garden:
You can see that they decorate the garden with flowers in the summer. But they change it for every season. So, when it's Christmas time, there are holiday plants, Christmas trees, and other things.
The statue in the background is actually King Louis the Fourteenth (Is that right? The "sun king"?) But...they made the statue to make him look like a Roman Emperor. So...I don't get it.
One of the buildings near the garden. The occupants were more wealthy compared to their neighbors because this building looks nicer and you can see the big carriage doors (blue).
L'Abbaye Aux Hommes! (Men's Abbey)
Palace of Justice is the next picture. We had to walk past it on the way to the Men's Abbey. So, the French made all of their Palace of Justice's to look Greek.
And...Caen has decided to build a new Palace. And no one knows what's going to happen to this building now. Are they going to keep it? Are they going to demolish it and build something else? No one knows...
We arrive at the Men's Abbey!
William the Conqueror had this abbey built to make nice with the new Pope, because the old Pope was angry that he married his wife. The official reason was because they were fifth cousins, but it is known that it was all political: the people in power were afraid that William (originally called "William the Bastard" because his father is unknown) was gaining too much power. And the woman he loved, Madeline, was from a really powerful, important family.
To the left is the cloister. But it's used for government things and marriages, because, again, the French Revolution. To the right: the church.
It's actually interesting where William decided to build the abbey. It was located outside the walls of the city...
And across the street is another church. What you see is all there is. It was badly damaged in the bombings of WWII. It is preserved to remind everyone of the War and the importance of peace.
Can you see the city wall that was connected to the damaged church? It's above the hedges...
The buildings around the Abbey:
The inside of the Abbey (sorry that it got blurry. Had to walk fast to keep up with the rest of the people who aren't interested in taking pictures of everything. I'm so Catholic...)
In nooks to the right are these gorgeous pantings of Mary and Jesus' life. But, again, we went SO fast!
The chapel of St. Therese (the little flower). She's so popular in France. Hmm...wonder why (that's sarcasm I'm typing).
The main part of the church is surrounded by gates with names of famous people for the Abbey above them
The main alter:
William the Conqueror's grave:
The back of the church:
Did you know that William's grave was ransacked three times? I guess the French finally learned their lesson and stopped putting jewels on it. So, since it was ransacked, there is only William's left side bone in there. Apparently, they checked when Queen Elizabeth I came over to France to visit one of her ancestors. And DNA testing proved that it is, indeed, William's bone.
Above the gates, where there are names of important people to the abbey. Such as, the monks who helped construct the abbey (because that is what they did back then) and others who fought for the building when people wanted to destroy most of it (downsizing! No, no, no!)
The huge wooden clock in the church. Because it is important for monks to always watch the time. They could only take so much time for prayer, intellectual work, and domestic work.
The other alter in the main church, farther down from William's grave. Actually, the one behind William's grave is the original alter.
The one statue that I found that had color. Mary, holding the Child Jesus. She is pointing to his Sacred Heart.
Passed the clock...
The organ and the back door of the church:
The back of the church. Originally, there weren't the two towers. I'm glad they added them. So was the rest of Caen, because they are mimicked in many of the other churches in the city.
Random facts of the day (not pertaining to the tour):
And, being the cloudiest day since I've been here, all day the song "If you steal my sunshine" by Len was going through my head. (Sigh)
I also want to add that since I've been here, there have been three songs that I've recognized while Colette has listened to the radio or I'm out in the streets and hear from shops: The first was that famous song from Carmen (you know, the opera). Then, I heard "Return to Sender" by Elvis (Audra's favorite singer). Today, I heard "Penny Lane" by the Beatles (Angie's favorite band). So, my sisters are with me in France.
Tomorrow, I'm going to my host family's country house. There are going to be 16 of us. I'm a little nervous. I don't want them to think that I'm being rude because I can't think of what to say or how to say anything long. I'm so glad that Marie and Emilie know English a bit.
Pray for me!
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