when in caen…

 This post was what kick-started me into actually making this blog.  Someone over on Tumblr asked for recommendations of things to see and do in and around Caen, the city where I recently finished spending last semester.  My first draft of this post ended up sounding a lot more like a dry travel book than what it was supposed to be- a collection of the memories that made my stay in Caen so special.  So I decided to redo the post.  If you’re looking for comprehensive lists on what to see and do in the city, there are plenty of resources for you- TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, Virtual Tourist, Brittany Ferries, and the Caen Office du Tourisme, to name a few.  Numerous other suggestions could be given by my friends and classmates who explored different places, as well as by native caennaise and other French bloggers.  The things on this list are by and large the ones that, after almost four months, felt special to me, and in many cases were ones I returned to often.  

So, without further ado…

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If you ever find yourself in Caen…

…get a sense of history at the Château de Caen

The chateau with drapeaux proudly flying

The location of my host family’s apartment meant that I got to walk through this place every day to get to class.  Sometimes I started to take the walk for granted, but then it would hit me out of nowhere- This place is over nine hundred years old.  Built by William the Conqueror, the chateau watches proudly over the city, just opposite the church of St. Pierre.  Through the gates stand both the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée de Normandie, both great places to spend an afternoon, in addition to walking the grounds and up portions of the fortifications themselves.  You can even do both museums on the same day if you plan ahead.  Buy your tickets in the chapel opposite the art museum, and have a day exploring the history and art of Normandy.  Just be aware, both are closed from 12:30-2:00 for lunch!  Lounging around on the grounds below the chateau (see the next photo) is a very popular student activity and a favorite of mine.

…dig your toes in the sand in Ouistreham

Take the Bus Vert from Tour Leroy and in about 20 minutes you’ll be at the beach!  This is an outing that our group’s resident director took us on during one of our first days in Caen.  You can wander around town and buy postcards and have coffee, or get a sandwich on a giant baguette and ice cream and sit by the water (or, do all of those things!).  Just keep an eye out for greedy seagulls!  If you have a car and it’s a nice day I’d recommend doing what my host mom and her friends and I did a few times- driving down a little farther than Ouistreham towards Lion-sur-mer and taking a long walk along the beach.  You can see some wonderful old houses, and on a lazy, breezy-warm Sunday this is the perfect way to spend an afternoon.

…taste the clouds at Le P’tit Chou Normand 

aka the boulangerie that stole my heart.  It’s on the rue Saint-Pierre and is painted red.  The cream puffs (les petits choux) are actual dream clouds (this coming from someone who does not usually like cream puffs) and I got all of my friends addicted to them too.  The mint tea here is also good, and with extra sugar is a nice treat on a cold and rainy Norman morning.  You can also buy yourself a croissant and then head across the street to Les Arcades for coffee, one of our little American group’s favorite spots, introduced to us by our program manager.  Le P’tit Chou is her favorite boulangerie, and when she took us here on our first day it quickly became everyone’s go-to.  After four action-packed, 90 degree days in Paris at the beginning of the program, it was a welcome respite to sit on a bench in the cool air, to eat a sandwich and just breathe.  That was the first moment I remember feeling a sense of real calm since landing at CDG, the sense that maybe I hadn’t overestimated myself by taking on a program of studies entirely in French, and that hey, maybe I can really do this.

…get your wander on en centre ville

A view from the chateau, with the church of St. Pierre in the background

Just wandering around the main parts of the city will give you a tour like no other.  Caen breathes history, and you can find it everywhere.  My fondest memories are of walking Caen’s streets with friends or by myself (usually in search of coffee)- up the rue Froide to Place Saint-Sauveur, around the old Palais de Justice, or down by the water- and everywhere in between. Caen is a very walk-able, live-able city.  When my parents came to visit me, my mom said this too.  There was no intense or awkward adjustment period here, for me at least, which surprised me.  I just felt comfortable in Caen, a freeing feeling I haven’t experienced in many other cities.  On a summer or early fall afternoon you might catch a lively brocante (flea market) with live music- keep an eye on local announcements or check with the tourism office at Place Saint-Pierre, located next to the statue-filled historic courtyard of the Hôtel d’Escoville.  There’s also an abundance of shops and shopping opportunities in centre ville itself, and at the nearby Les Rives de l’Orne, a swanky shopping complex a couple tram stops from the chateau, and which also boasts a really nice movie theater.

Make sure to also check out the beautiful Mairie de Caen, the historic Vaugueux district with its many restaurants, the famous Abbaye aux Hommes (Abbaye of St. Étienne) and the Abbaye aux Dames (Abbey of Sainte-Trinité), both built by William the Conqueror.  The former, the « men’s abbey, » is the final resting place of…actually just his femur (history, man); his wife Mathilde lies in the women’s abbey.  Inside the grounds of the Abbaye aux Dames is Parc Michel-d’Ornano, home to a beautiful Cedar of Lebanon tree planted in 1849 and a wonderful, quiet spot to see a great view of the city from.

…have a museum day at Le Mémorial

If don’t have a car, you can purchase a carte pour dix voyages from the Twisto (transportation) office at Place Saint-Pierre (or simply pay your fare at the front of the tram) and head over to the Mémorial de Caen.  This is an amazing museum and memorial (with surrounding gardens) focused on WWII, absolutely packed with information.  There is so much to absorb that after wandering through what felt like the entire museum my friends and I felt an information overload, yet we still ran through the last section on the Cold War and the nuclear age just because it was there.  Their gift shop also has a great selection of historical books, both in English and in French.

…galettes and crêpes at La Ficelle

For traditional, must-try galettes and crepes.  I went here on a group outing, then took my parents when they visited (and they returned while I was in class), and then went back with a friend during our fall break.  It’s that good.

…chateau it up in Mezidon-Canon

A view from the back of the chateau

The Château de Canon is about a 30-minute drive outside the city.  This is where my host mom took me on a weekend during September’s Journées du Patrimoine (« Heritage Days »), when French historical sites have reduced or free admission, and many often-closed sites are open to the public.  The chateau’s fascinating history, gorgeous surrounding grounds and walled gardens, and homemade apple products make this a near-perfect way to spend a (hopefully warm) September afternoon.  To be honest, the relative size of this place, lack of huge crowds, and the unnaturally good weather we had on that weekend makes the question « Canon ou Versailles? » an easy one for me 🙂

…rule Britannia at Dolly’s

For giant weekend breakfasts, cozy afternoon teas, and whenever you need a sugar hit.  This place is kind of expensive and reservations are usually needed on weekends for breakfast/brunch, but that makes it even more special when you treat yourself.  The atmosphere at Dolly’s is best shared with friends, and it’s really fun to soak in all the British kitsch and ephemera while sinking into a plush armchair, listening to the great fifties and sixties music and talking over steaming mugs of chocolat chaud avec cannelle (hot chocolate with cinnamon).  All of my memories here are of warm conversations with friends, and also cheesecake.  Cheesecake definitely tastes better when you’re supposed to be studying.  Another alternative to Dolly’s is Greedy Guts, a charming vegan and vegetarian restaurant hidden down a stone alley on the rue de Bras.

…explore D-Day where it happened

A windy, misty day at Pointe du Hoc

I won’t go into the details of the numerous D-Day related excursions you can do (with transportation), since that would take up at least another post in itself, but of course these sites are also highly recommended (seriously), since they’re so integral to the history of the region, besides being great places to visit.  History still inhabits these places, floating above the beaches, resting in the fields of farmers, living in the now-quiet, sunlit paths over which the hedgerows still tower.  Closer to Caen is the Pegasus Bridge museum, Ranville War Cemetery, and the Merville gun battery (among others), as well as Sword and Juno beaches in the vicinity of Ouistreham.  Farther out, you’ll find the harbor at Arromanches, the battery at Longues-sur-mer, Pointe du Hoc, Utah and Omaha beaches and their respective museums, the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-mer just above Omaha beach, and much more.

…take a day trip or an overnight

One of the famous cliffs at Etretat

Caen is within a reasonable driving distance of many other wonderful places- the historic town of Bayeux with its cathedral and the Bayeux tapestry, Rouen and its famous Gros Horloge, Monet’s Giverny, the Chateau de Falaise, Le Mont St. Michel, the walled port city of Saint-Malo, as well as the surrounding communes of Vire, Dieppe, Le Havre, Deauville, and Trouville.  Where you choose depends on what you want to see and, of course, the weather!  It was a really awesome thing to be able to leave my French culture class on Friday morning and then travel within only a couple hours to some of the places we’d just talked about- over the Pont de Normandie to to the picture-perfect Honfleur and the stunning falaises d’Étretat.

…stop for lunch at Le Falafel

I might be a little biased here, since this was where my class went for lunch after finals and we were all drunk with happiness off the idea that we wouldn’t have to study la grammaire for at least a few weeks (and emotional about saying goodbye, too).  I got ‘le samourai,’ with spicy samourai sauce (don’t ask me what’s in it) and fries, and it was the kind of sandwich that’s so big you can’t really finish it but you do anyway because it’s so good.  A giant merci to the staff here for accommodating our 15-person class in the back of a not-exactly-huge restaurant, giving us complimentary tea, and for not looking phased when we all left crying after coming in laughing and smiling an hour earlier.  If you still need more of a fries + sauce fix, go for the ones with « magic sauce » (pretty sure it’s just amped-up tahini, not that I’m complaining) at La Corne d’Or near Tour Leroy.  Ask for them without cheese and say hello to your new favorite late-night snack.

…have a tea party at Mémoranda

This is a delightfully crowded used bookstore with a café upstairs and a fabulous tea selection- endless happy place vibes all around.  The food can be a little pricey but is totally worth it, especially if you go with friends and each get something so you can all sample.  I’d go earlier in the day rather than later to avoid crowds, and if you want to get a seat upstairs.  I bought a lovely book of Paul Éluard poetry and a thesaurus here on one of my first days and they weren’t too expensive.

…feel like a local at the markets

The tops of the Christmas market stalls on one of my last nights in Caen

We got out of class early on Fridays so sometimes we’d go to the one at Place Saint-Sauveur, even though it was usually somewhat packing up when we got there.  I’d recommend the tergoule (like a super-blended rice pudding with cinnamon) at the end of the first street (I don’t remember the vendor’s name), or maybe some fresh fruit.  My best market memories are of the Sunday one at Tour Leroy down by the water, which my host family goes to every weekend.  It’s a huge market, and when almost everything else is closed on Sunday, it’s the hottest place in town!  This market might be the thing I miss most about daily life in Caen.  You can wander up and down looking at all the wonderful food and flowers and clothing and books for sale for quite a while, especially if you buy a crepe to savor along the way.  If you want to buy nice local booze (cidre, calvados, etc), this is the place to do it.  The market is especially fun with friends (as are most things while you are abroad, though being alone of course is its own experience), and you can head the two steps over to Café l’Univers for a café crème when you’re done browsing.

…get into a winter state of mind

I spent the fall months and the near-beginnings of winter in Caen, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about a few things to do that are special to this season.  The Christmas spirit starts early here- pick yourself up some vin chaud (hot wine) at Place Saint-Sauveur’s Marché de Noël, and wander up and down looking at all the holiday wares for sale.  On one of the last weekends I was there, there was also a smaller antique book fair next to the market, spilling out of the Église du Vieux Saint-Sauveur, with old postcards, books, records, and art.  There’s also the Patinoire de Caen la mer, an ice skating rink with special late-night holiday hours, and the grande roue (Ferris wheel).

(One last thing… click the top of each photo to hear one of my favorite French songs- a couple of the artists are from Caen!)

Bon voyage, et bon appétit xx

faith + pomegranates in france

photo credit: Tony Kamenick via Flickr

This first post is about a memory.  I’d meant to write about it at the time that it happened, and I tried to, but the words didn’t come just right, and I gave up.  So there are no photos either, something that I want to become a big part of this blog.  It’s always after you leave that you realize the things you didn’t capture, but should have.

It was an afternoon about a third of my way through a four-month stay in Caen.  In terms of faith, I was floating.  Too nervous to seek out a synagogue.  Too nervous to mention anything vaguely Jewish.  This was before the most recent stabbings in France, but after so much else.  We’d been paying attention to the news for years.  But one day at the Sunday market, the abundant displays of produce were a reminder.  I could buy a pomegranate.  In Ancient Israel pomegranates were the fruit, the fertility, of the promised land.  I wanted to count each of the seeds’ mitzvot with my hands.  To feel connected, to find something old and treasured to hold onto in these waves of feeling rootless and alone.

Back at the apartment, I set out to take apart the fruit, removing each jeweled aril one by one. There was certainly a more efficient way to go about the task than what I did, carving and poking around the fruit with the tip of a sharp knife and plucking out each seed one by one.  But the act of pulling the pomegranate- la grenade– apart slowly, getting rid of the rotten seeds and watching the pile of good ones grow, felt like something necessary.  Into the blue glazed bowl they went, as my host mother and her friends worked around me in the kitchen.  Even after it felt like I’d peeled back the last filmy inner wall, there was another, offering up its tiny gems.  The arils were beautiful in that bowl, undeniably so.  My hands became stained with brilliant juice, the color caught under my fingernails like blood.  My host mother and her friends oohed and aahed when I was done- bravo! – for the dedication, I suppose.  It had taken quite a while since I’d worked slowly, half-listening to their conversations and trying to translate.  But now I had a full bowl of fruit, and the rinds and reddened fingertips to show for it.

Up until that point, I hadn’t known what to say to my host parents when they asked about my religion.  My father is not Jewish but my mother is; both of them raised my sister and me in her faith.  “Does your mother cook Jewish food?” my host parents asked.  “Does your mother go to temple?”  When I mentioned fasting for Yom Kippur- “isn’t fasting just the tradition of the parents, the older people?”  I knew they didn’t mean it maliciously.  French secularism, and a hundred other things, dictated that response.  But after a while, I couldn’t help but hear their questions as negative.  “Isn’t it just the older generation?” sounded like, “isn’t it just the ones who don’t know any better?”

My religion is the religion of my mother, yes, but it is also just that- my religion.  The religion of a people, their culture, their history.  I have inherited this; I have chosen it.  This blessing belongs just as much in my bowl of seeds as it does in my mother’s pots of soup, just as much on her lips reciting the Kaddish every autumn for her father as it does to mine mouthing the words after Paris, just as much in her tears, mournful and joyful with the seasons, as it does in my own.  My religion doesn’t belong to dusty books and locked cabinets.  It’s right here, I wanted to say, looking at the red pomegranate caught under my nails, staining them like an ancient memory.  It’s right here in my hands.