20 July, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Caen is the city of William the Conqueror, who I was only vaguely aware of before this trip. For those as ignorant of medieval European history as me, William the Conqueror became William I of England, after he conquered England, hence the catchy title. [Though really, his other handle, William the Bastard, is pretty awesome.] In Caen there is a lot of Norman history that I’m just not familiar with (though I am now – thanks Wikipedia!). Did you know that before William I, the king of England was Harold Godwinson? I don’t think this is accurate. How could a king of England from 1,000 years ago have a name that sounds like he should be living in a retirement community in south Florida next door to the Golden Girls? Surely this can’t be right. I’ve never heard of anything so absurd.
According to Wikipedia, 80 percent of Caen was leveled during WWII. Amazing, then, that the centuries old cathedrals and the 1,000-year-old castle made it through completely intact. I wonder if they were bombed and then patched up, otherwise it’s incredibly lucky that these places weren’t destroyed. There are many cathedrals here – you turn a corner and bam! – cathedral. Spires everywhere. They make a nice backdrop for Subway, McDonalds and all the other cultural gems that abound. Seriously, there are a lot of chains here, but it’s actually a very nice city.
I’m being a lazy photographer on this trip, just to warn you. I don’t have the dedication to take tons of photos, edit them and organize them. It’s just too much work. You can view my very small Caen set here on Flickr. [At least I finally got an adapter to connect my photo card up to my MacBook - it's only taken a year. I found one today at FNAC. I think it's ridiculous that MacBooks don't have a slot for an SD photo card.]
Anyway, back to Caen. There is a big WWII museum here – not surprising, since Normandy is D-Day headquarters. The museum has the uninspired and confusing name Le Memorial de Caen. They asked me to take a survey on my way out and I told them how ineffective this name is, at least to an English-speaking person. But anyway, it’s quite a big museum. You walk through the exhibits, which begin at the end of WWI and then go all the way through WWII. It’s a good refresher on WWII history. Films are shown as well, including one on the Battle of Britain that I thought was very informative and then one on D-Day. The museum, films and exhibits celebrate the bravery of the British and Americans and heralds their role in liberating France and ending the war – this theme is very strong throughout the museum.
The museum has several girders from the World Trade Center – apparently the only WTC wreckage that exists outside the US. The girders are just dumped outside, hidden in a corner with no sign or anything. It’s a bit strange. They’re near the peace garden, but I don’t see what on earth the WTC has to do with peace. Just the opposite.
It was difficult to spend the afternoon seeing so much death and destruction, including photos of people being hanged, shot, etc. In the D-Day film, there were photos and footage of such utter carnage and destruction. It’s so effed up what men do – and I do mean men. Men do this and they should own it. All this destruction and death…for what? It’s impossible to comprehend it all. And it continues today, right now, in the Middle East, only this time we don’t have the moral high ground as we did in WWII.
At the end of the afternoon, I was grateful for the gardens around the museum – the fresh air and the flowers were much needed.
Anglofille said @ 11:06 pm | travel | 11 Comments
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Caroline Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 pmI enjoy your writing about new experiences and insights. Oh, and Caen is pronounced “con” — a nasty word in French, as you know.
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Caen = con = quand…no wonder it’s so difficult to understand spoken French!
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Dorothy Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 pmCaen is not pronounced “con”, it’s pronounced “quand”
So, con and quand are pronounced differently… -
Dorothy is right (and Catoline is wrong, so…), “Caen” is pronounced “Quand”.
… And I personnaly did’nt know Harold Goldwinson.
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To an English speaker, “con” and “quand” sound alike – but I can see that there is a difference in the sounds. C’est tres difficile!
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Dorothy Says:
July 24th, 2009 at 12:16 pm“con” is more closed, while “quand” is more open. “quand” is a bit like the english word “conference” or “conducter” (except for the sound of the “qu” and + the sound of the nose in the french words), whereas “con” is really really closed (can’t think of an english word which sounds close to it, maybe there isn’t one, maybe that particular sound doesn’t exist in english – ?).
Caen is generally pronounced like quand, yes, but there are various phonetic contexts in which quand is pronounced slightly differently from its normal pronounciation…
These are interesting questions, I like those
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Yes: “Caen” is pronounced as “paon” (peacock) or “faon” (fawn) or the “pan” of “pantalon” when “con” is rather prononced as “pont”
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Dorothy Says:
July 26th, 2009 at 4:22 pmyes but I was trying to find an english word which sounds like the french “con”. can you think of one? “quand” is a bit like the english “quand-nference” (conference), but “con”? maybe it’s a bit like the “a” in “water” (+the sound of the nose in con) if you pronounce it extremely britishly, I mean really extremely britishly
but I think it doesn’t really come close to it either, but maybe it’s the closest you can get… ? -
Dorothy. as strange and nearly horrible as it seems, English has perhaps no word which sounds like the french “con”! Even the “on” of “King Kong” is rather pronounced “an”.
It’s a pity ! Poor little things !
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Svetlana Says:
August 24th, 2009 at 4:24 pmHello,
cant remember now how i found this site but i think you might help me to find one place. In a few days we’re going to Niceand my son wanted to visit the place where american soldgers were landed in Saint-Raphaël. I found that now it is just a beach. Do they have any monuments there, where exactly it is, we’ll be without car (taking trane or bus), would it be easy to find it in the town? Please if you know anything about this place let me know ASAP ( lex01_1@ hotmail.com THANKS! -
Svetlana – I don’t know. I was in Normandy, not Nice. I haven’t been to Nice in many years. Sorry I can’t help.
