Le Mémorial de Falaise in Falaise, France, takes the focus off the generals and soldiers and puts it on the civilian men, women and children who lived through Nazi oppression.Peter Scowen/The Globe and Mail
On a recent visit to the hilltop Norman village of Falaise, a tour guide’s very first words to a group of American visitors were, “The town was liberated by Canadian soldiers in the Second World War.” Falaise has not forgotten.
Behind the guide stood a muscular bronze statue of William the Conqueror astride a rearing stallion, and beyond that, at the town’s highest point, the medieval castle where William was born out of wedlock in 1027.
The statue of William the Conqueror in Falaise, France, was erected in 1851.Peter Scowen/The Globe and Mail
Falaise plays a central role in “Millenium 2027, European Year of the Normans,” a 12-month celebration marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William, the Norman duke who was crowned king of England after his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The millennial celebration is rather pointedly intended to reinforce the importance of international co-operation and the fight against fascism, all through the lens of Norman history.
It made headlines in September when the French government shipped the Bayeux Tapestry, which recounts the Norman conquest of Britain, from Bayeux to London – a historic gesture of friendship between the two countries.
The tapestry, embroidered in the years immediately after 1066, is on display at the British Museum until July 2027. It will then return to Bayeux to be exhibited in a renovated museum in which its entire 70-metre length can be displayed without interruption. The reopening of the museum in the fall of 2027 will be one of the culminating events of the Year of the Normans.
Arromanches-les-Bains, the Normandy fishing village where the British built a massive port after D-Day.Peter Scowen/The Globe and Mail
All this makes Falaise and the area around it an extraordinary place to visit this fall and next year. The small town 30 kilometres south of Caen physically connects two historic invasions cross the English Channel – one in 1066 to conquer and another in 1944 to liberate – that shaped Europe and Britain’s past and present. They have something to say about the future, too.
O Canada and La Marseillaise
The Nazi occupation and Canada’s role in ending it are indelibly etched into Falaise.
At Square des Canadiens, tucked between modern apartment buildings and a gymnasium built after the town’s near destruction by allied bombers in 1944, locals celebrate their liberators every Aug. 17. The ceremony includes the playing of O Canada and the Canadian Act of Remembrance, followed by the national anthem, La Marseillaise.
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At William the Conqueror Square, there’s a museum dedicated to the lives of Falaise citizens during the Second World War. Le Mémorial de Falaise takes the focus off the generals and soldiers and puts it on the civilian men, women and children who lived through Nazi oppression and those terrible bombings. Built over the remains of a home that was destroyed, it’s a monument to survival.
William the Conqueror’s medieval castle in Falaise dominates the village.Peter Scowen/The Globe and Mail
Not far away is William the Conqueror’s birthplace. The castle, mostly built by William’s descendants after his death in 1087, dominates Falaise; it’s a climb up rocky terrain from the square to the entrance but worth the trouble for the view alone.
Inside is a museum offering a smartly curated look at William’s family tree and its political and historic impact in Britain. It’s also an education on life in a medieval castle. Visitors are given tablets that use virtual reality to show them what each room would have looked like, and what it was used for, 900 years ago.
Storming the beaches
Half an hour away by car is the city of Caen, which Canadian and British troops liberated prior to Falaise in a gruesome six-week battle. The Caen War Memorial bills itself as a monument to peace and it can leave a visitor breathless. Its depiction of the causes and rise of fascism in Germany and of the cold horror of the Holocaust hit the viewer all the harder in a time when far-right parties are making inroads in Europe.
Equally relevant is the memorial’s depiction of the rise of European unity after the Second World War and during the Cold War, and how it helped bring generations of peace and prosperity to the continent.
The statue, overlooking the beaches at Arronmanche, depicts a British D-Day veteran named Bill Pendell. He landed there at age 22 in June 1945. It shows him in old age.Peter Scowen/The Globe and Mail
Just 30 minutes away from Caen are the famous beaches of Normandy, where allied troops landed on D-Day and then fought their way inland through some of the toughest allied fighting in the Second World War.
Arromanches-les-Bains, a fishing village whose streets today are lined with tourist-filled cafés and restaurants, is where British troops created a massive artificial port through which 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tonnes of supplies flowed in in the months after D-Day.
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Walking among the remaining seaweed-covered caissons at low tide, you feel the enormity of the invasion and its legacy. So, too, on nearby Juno Beach, where Canada operates a museum dedicated to the heroism of Canadian soldiers on and after D-Day, and on Omaha Beach, where U.S. troops were exposed to a horrible assault from German soldiers firing from the high bluffs above the shore.
The legacy of those soldiers’ bravery feels at risk sometimes. But history is an unfinished story. The Bayeux Tapestry itself ends abruptly with the Battle of Hastings, but there is evidence that it once went on to depict William’s coronation as king of England.
Tourists take photos of the remaining concrete caissons that were used the build the port in Arromanches. As many as 2.5-million men landed there after D-Day as part of the allied Normandy invasion.Peter Scowen/The Globe and Mail
One of the projects in the European Year of the Normans is the completion of the tapestry. French artist Hélène Delprat has designed a new ending that is being woven by French tapestry makers. The work will be unveiled in London’s Westminster Abbey next fall.
And then it will be sent to Falaise to hang permanently in William the Conqueror’s castle.
If you go
The simplest way to travel between Falaise, Caen and the beaches is by rented car. From Paris, take a train to Caen and rent it there. The region also has excellent cycling infrastructure. The Normandy Tourism website (en.normandie-tourisme.fr) can help you plan your trip.
Hotel-wise, there are interesting options. The Mercure Hotel in Omaha Beach has a 36-hole golf course. There is a nice spa and gîte in Mazières called La Bastide de Laizon that has a good kitchen. For travellers who prefer luxury quarters, try Château d’Audrieu, a five-star Relais & Châteaux property in the village of Audrieu, halfway between Caen and Bayeux. And for families, the Manoir de Mathan in Crépon offers large rooms, some of which have kitchens.
The writer was a guest of Atout France, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.