DAY THREE - We Tour Caen
Caen has a remarkable city center and because of its Medieval history, it is compact and easily walked. The walking tour of Caen begins at the Phoenix, which always serves as a combination central rallying point, meeting place for friends and couples, "speakers' corner", and general orienting point for anyone seeking directions.
Walking south from the Phoenix, we pass through the Castle ruins and find the Rue de Vaugueux. The "Vaugueux", as it is more simply called by the local "Caenais", (people who live in Caen) is a pedestrian street that began as an ancient narrow cobblestone street with several off-shoots. Dating from the early middle ages, it now hosts a multitude of small colorful restaurants with sidewalk cafes under bright umbrellas and street lights where locals and tourists alike gather to enjoy a amazing array of tasty food options in the company of friends and family. Many restaurants specialize in fresh-catch seafood or local Normand cuisine. But, it was not always like this.
The Vaugueux in the late middle ages and the renaissance was the "bad side of town", an unsavory place where one was as likely to be pick-pocketed or robbed as to be served a meal. Persons of dubious character and an environment of dirt and ill-health were characteristic. Persons of quality were well advised to avoid it and it remained a place to be avoided until the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it gradually became a more salubrious place to be and to be seen.
Today, the Vaugueux is one of the few remaining places in Caen where the typical visitor can still see half-timber houses and ancient walls dating back to the middle ages.
DINNER IN TOWN
American students enjoy an evening meal at a café in the Vaugueux.
A half-timber building in the Vaugueux.
View of the "Centre Ville" of Caen with L'Eglise St. Pierre in the background.
The Harbor
Pleasure boats regularly dock in the Caen harbor. Large businesses are often located in this scenic part of town and condos, such as those in the background facing ever-changing views, go for premium prices. Like many edifices in Caen the apartment blocks are built with a stone quarried only in the region and commonly referred to as "la pierre de Caen" or in English "Caen stone". The stone is consistently a creamy beige with a slight tint of gold. It typically has no marbling and is capable of weathering the Normand seasons, yet it is fairly easily worked. The stone is typically used as a "fitted" masonry which is to say it is shaped into consistent sizes with small grout lines of a lighter colored mortar and is used as a facing stone.
The harbor is actually within the city of Caen and is technically artificial as it is part of the Canal de Caen a la Mer.
La Tour Du Roi
A remnant of the security wall built around Caen in the middle ages, La Tour du Roi is now located in the middle of a major thoroughfare.
There are other condo buildings in the background built of the famous Caen Stone. Of interest is that this part of Caen is part of the wide north-to-south swath that was nearly flattened by the Allied bombardment during the month of June 1944. As nearly as possible, buildings rebuilt after the war, were constructed to resemble, in style, materials, and design detail, the buildings that survived the bombing. The reconstruction was conducted in three phases starting after bomb rubble had been cleared in 1947 and beginning with the area nearest to the University. The reconstruction design requirements created a unique architectural harmony in the city especially at its center.
Spared by the Bombs
Buildings from the middle ages that were not destroyed by the bombings of June 1944 were, where ever possible, shored up and allowed to remain in place as counterpoints to new construction. Although few in number, they serve to remind Caenais and tourists of the historical and cultural treasures that remain from the medieval period.
Another half-timber house along a major street seen from a parapet of the Fortress. The runners in pink shirts are competing in a breast cancer awareness 5K race on this day. While the façade is original medieval construction, this building has been significantly amended as can be seen by looking at the side of the building.
More runners in the 5K running past a phase II re-construction on the right and a phase III building on the left.
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