We awoke to sunshine although it was still cool, 6c, we headed around the corner for a coffee from Columbus & Co, it must be a franchise as we have seen them before, the coffee was actually quite nice, we then found the tourist information office & I got a map. We wandered along the road for a couple of streets & spotted a green grocery & butchers, Richard had looked but couldn’t find a market in the town centre. We also found a fish shop, we made our purchases & headed home. We then headed to the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, which was founded by William the Conqueror in 1063, William is buried in the abbey. The abbey is part Romanesque & part Gothic in style, the Benedictine monks lived there until 1790, it then became a boys school from 1804 - 1961 & since 1965 it been the Caen city hall. During WWII it served as a refuge & survived the bombing of 1944.
The gatehouse area had an exhibition “summer of 1944”, which was really interesting.
A few days before D-Day close to 10,000 beds had been organised for refugees as well as canteens to supply residents with food. Exercises had been carried out in the weeks prior & on 29 May 1944 a full scale rehearsal was carried out to show the inhabitants of Caen that the civil defences were ready in case of air bombing.
On 6 June 1944 the city was in flames with 300 Caen civilians killed & the Abbaye-aux-Hommes became a reception centre. Giant red crosses were arranged on the roof to attract the attention of the allied planes, for over a month until evacuation approximately 2,000 refugees lived in the abbey, church & cloisters.

Red Cross Teams took to the streets each day in search of food, inspecting ruined houses / shops & also the countryside looking for vegetables, meat & milk. The abbey supplied on average 18,000 meals twice a day at the height of the battle.
2000 people from Caen died under the allied bombs & German shells during the liberation of the city, burials needed to be quick during this time, bodies often unidentified, were placed in a pouch & then directly into the ground. After the battle these bodies were exhumed & buried properly.
We then visited the abbeys church.
We returned to the apartment for a late lunch & then headed to Château de Caen, built in 1060 by William the Conqueror. The castle was used as a barracks during WWII & was seriously damaged by bombs in 1944.
We enjoyed the views from the ramparts & also saw an exhibition of Caen in images, I liked the picture of the two red 1/2 timbered houses which are actually opposite the coffee shop.
We then headed to Monoprix for food for today & tomorrow as it’s a public holiday in France.
Tonight we have small kifler potatoes, with salad & steak.