Day Three:

Shaking off the feast-induced slumber of the night before, we got an early start to our day at Caen.  Our first stop was St-Etienne (Abbaye-aux-Hommes), founded by William the Conqueror.

A special treat was in store for us inside St-Etienne, since the Mayor’s office allowed us to explore some off-limits areas of the church, such as these wide tribunes that allow circulation around the church’s upper stories.  This photo (right) was shot from the choir tribune, looking over the void of the transept arm and into the nave tribune:




From the choir tribune, one gets a clear view of the entire church length. 

 


In the tribunes, you can get a great view of sculptures that are normally much too far away to appreciate.



Our next church visit at Caen was of St-Nicolas.  Normally closed to the public, the Mayor’s office allowed us to explore every nook and cranny of this beautiful church.  Although little known, it is one of the most pristine examples of Norman Romanesque.



Dazzled by the sight, Rachel, Daryl, Johanna, Roland, Vicki, and Lizzie don’t know which way to turn...


Our exploration of St-Nicolas wasn’t over yet, though, since we still had to explore the upper story wall passages (a famous feature of Norman Romanesque) and to get into the attic to walk on top of the aisle vaults!






There’s much to see at our next stop, La Trinité (Abbaye-aux-Femmes), but a wedding ceremony taking place in the choir curtailed our visit a little.



So, with our visit to La Trinité being so short, we had some extra time on our hands, and we decided to check out Falaise, an ancestral castle of the Norman dukes situated a few kilometers outside Caen.







The private chapel of the castle keep....



End of Day Three:
 

We rolled into our Bayeux bed & breakfast—a lovely 18th-century manor house—just in time to head to a restaurant and ingest a few more of Normandy’s delicacies (duck, scallops, Camembert, cidre, and of course more Calvados...). 

> Day Four