Caen - the residence of William the Conqueror

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June 7th we ended up in Caen, where William the Conqueror lived and built his famous castle. Before leaving for Paris we visited the most famous World War II Memorial Museum in France.  The exhibits began with how the world was before WW II and it was interesting to see, in pictures and eye-opening films, of exactly how Fascist regimes gained strongholds in European countries after WW I.  The genocide that Japan carried out in China was a contributing factor also.

A little scary, also, considering the current world situation, to realize that in the early 20th century both the United States and Europe were in economic collapse. There were many warnings about Hitler and the Nazis, but no one listened - and we can only shake our heads seeing Chamberlain, Petain, Stalin and Mussolini negotiating and collaborating with Hitler in order to have peace that was so short-lived - and which eventually plunged the world into a world war because the collaborative alliances were meaningless!  Our visit to this memorial concluded our WW II investigations.

 We met Michaelin, arriving in Paris in the afternoon, and barely got our luggage in the room before setting off for a walk to . . .  guess where?

The three things we most wanted to visit in Paris were, of course first - the Eiffel Tower, second - the Notre Dame Cathedral, and hopefully the Louvre.

Michaelin has been to Paris many times so it has been fun to have her along as our personal tour guide.  She knows the ropes of how to get around, so we learned a lot.

Lee was much more interested in the engineering of the building, so he needed to take close-up pictures of the actual structure to see how it was put together.

At night, we had a good view of the flashing lights on the Tower from our hotel window, though the lights were not continuous in their flashing, but only at timed intervals, so they aren't seen in the picture.

Since it does not get dark here until about 10:00 PM, we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral, where we didn't have too long to wait to get in.  We were just in time for Mass.  Again, these massive medieval structures are just too overwhelming to put into words - or even pictures for that matter.  Guarding the grounds of the cathedral is an imposing statue of a man who half the Western world is related to, and whom nearly the whole world is familiar with.

Charlemagne: 742-814 AD, also known as Charles the Great, was King of the Franks, as well as the King of Italy before becoming the first emperor of Western Europe.

When Charone was in Paris with Michaelin several years ago, her favorite place was the Notre Dame Cathedral, so we knew that we needed to visit there.  Unfortunately, there is a big blue grandstand right in the front of the cathedral for visitors to sit and take pictures.  The grandstand obstructs the cathedral and makes it so that a whole picture is not possible without including the grandstand in the foreground.

Lee has been experimenting with his camera to take pictures in unusual circumstances, and in the cathedral they did not allow pictures using a flash, so here is a beautiful artifact taken without a flash.

None of us are old enough to have seen the great movie, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" when it was actually filmed, but this was one of the greatest movies of the 1930's starring Charles Laughton as the hunchback and Maureen O'Hara as the gypsy girl, Esmeralda, whom he rescued and gave sanctuary.  Here is an excerpt, which shows some good views of this great cathedral.

After so many wars, persecutions, and anti-Christian conflicts, the Goddess of Reason, represented by a real lady with a gold-painted face and carrying a wand, now stands outside the entrance to Notre Dame.  She collects money while portraying the goddess.  She stands as a "statue" until approached by those who desire a photo-op.