This afternoon is reserved for the civil (legal) part of the three day marriage celebration for Aurélie and Simon. Since the lunch began at 1:00, we had time to visit a restored medieval castle, Château De Pierrefonds. Like many castles, this one had been rebuilt many times over the centuries. But, in the middle 1800’s, a family decided to study it and restore or replace whatever artifacts they could, aiming for a reconstruction of lordly residence of the Middle Ages. They used medieval techniques for making new statues and metal works, using the restored rooms they imagined might have been used for these purposes before.

On the initiative of Louis d’Orléans, son of King Charles V, the castle was built in the late 14th century on a rocky spur. The Chateau of Pierrefonds replaced an older fortified site built in the 11th century. Damage from centuries of conflicts and sieges caused it to be dismantled in 1617 by order of Louis XIII and left in ruins for over two hundred years.

Lunch preceded the civil ceremony, with only the family and special friends, so about thirty people. We made menu choices a few weeks before, but few remembered what they ordered. Fortunately, Aurélie had a list.

The ceremony in Compiègne was at the City Hall (Hôtel de Ville), by one of the mayor’s executive officers. Being an inquisitive American, Clare asked Aurélie and Simon, each independently, how they were feeling. Both indicated that this was the easy part of their celebratory weekend, the big emotions will come on Sunday.

After the ceremony, we (us, Marc and Jöelle, Joëlle’s 2 sisters and their mom, and one brother-in-law) went to the Glade of the Armistice, where WWI treaty documents were signed, in a train dining car.

This was also the place where the French surrendered part of their country in 1940, near the beginning of WWII. Hitler wanted to accept that surrender in the same place where Germany had surrendered before.

Dinner was again at the AirBnB, again delightfully unique. This time Simon and his parents and other friends were also with us, and we ate outside.

After breakfast in the hotel in Caen, we started on the drive to the wedding venue. We had to get to the AirBnB before 4:30, because Marc and Joëlle needed to pick up Joëlle’s sister at the Paris airport, about twenty minutes from where we will stay.

Of course, we explored on the way. Beuvron-en-Auge is one of the designated “Les Plus Beau Villages de France,” rural communities of at least 2000 residents featuring at least two protected national heritage sites. Villages who want tourism work hard to get onto this list.

Then off to Verderonne. The AirBnB where we stayed for the next five nights was an old rectory with a converted stable. The beautiful garden provided much of our breakfasts and dinners. The first dinner was a complex, vegetarian delight. We stayed in the upper floors of the stable, perhaps formerly the hayloft? which was converted into a spacious studio apartment.

Ten other guests of the wedding were staying here as well, in the larger separate building. At dinner, we met two of the witnesses for the wedding, Cindy, Aurélie’s best friend since childhood, and Nono, Simon’s friend from Belgium, who he met gaming on the internet 13 years ago. Cindy’s mom and sister were there as well. Her mom, Irene, is Aurélie’s godmother.

The owners of the AirBnB tied flowers to the napkins on the tables every time we ate there, adding beauty and a topic of conversation.

Getting to Verderonne, near Paris, for the wedding is a long drive, so we cut it in half by spending one night in Caen — at a hotel. The only hotel in our northern France adventures. First, of course, we tidied up the AirBnB, meeting the owner when we were ready to leave. He talked about the tidal bore we tried to see the previous two nights — when it is very large, he and his friends like to ride the wave along the Sélune River from a long way. This didn’t happen when we were there.

Our first stop was a small village, Villedieu-Les-Poêles, which was a center for copper smelting and other metal works. Being one of only three places in France that still makes bells, the factory is busy replacing the bells that were damaged in the 2019 fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. We wandered around the village, enjoying many metal sculptures and views.

Marianne is the national personification of the French Republic, symbolizing the core values of liberty, equality, fraternity, and reason.

Our next stop was the Abbaye de Hambye, founded in 1145 but partially destroyed by revolutionaries at the beginning of the French Revolution. Sold in 1790, the Abby was partially dismantled, used as a stone quarry. We arrived at 11:30, willing to pay the entrance fee, but were told that it was closed from 12 until 2. They would not let us in. Undaunted, we followed a trail through the forest that circled the Abbey, in search of views of the dismantled buildings.

In the forest, Joëlle stopped suddenly to alert us to thin strings, like spider webs, with small beige things along them. These processionary caterpillars are poisonous to humans and can kill small pets! Brian tried for a long time to get a picture of them, but what came out is rather blurry.

We continued along the trail around the Abbey, trying to get a view. Finally, about 80% around, we arrived at a road. The forest cleared and we could see the abbey.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant in a small town.

That afternoon, in Caen, we first explored a huge yellow-walled castle. Quite a fortress.

The Dukes of Normandy’s Great Hall (photo below)

The great reception hall at Caen castle has a beautiful Romanesque façade, often mistaken for that of a church. The hall was probably built for receptions at the court of King William II (William Rufus) (c. 1098). It was named the Exchequer Hall in memory of the sessions of the fiscal and administrative court that was sometimes held there (counting with tokens on a chequered table).

The cathedral adjacent to the castle was worth a quick look. Fortunately the doors were open.

Vaugueux is the oldest part of Caen; it was spared from the destruction of World War II.

Who would have thought you could see a similar phenomenon two days in a row and still be fascinated? St. Malo is a port city in Brittany, surrounded by thick stone walls. Historically, it was run by privateers, pirates working for the government. It, too, has wide flat beaches and a high tide differential.

We wandered the ramparts around the fortress at high tide, viewing islands close to the shore.

Jacques Cartier, whose statue is here, was an explorer known for being the first person to use the name Canada, our North American neighbor, “discovering” Quebec in the sixteenth century.

After lunch, we walked out to the rocks that were no longer islands!

Later, a few kilometers away, we found an obscure outdoor museum, Rock Sculptures of Abbe Foure, filled with statues carved out of the bedrock near the shoreline. The artist, Foure, had a paralyzing stroke at age 30, then retreated to this area, the Cliffs of Rotheneuf, to make his statues.