Caen is a impressive city with many fine old buildings at it’s centre not least of which is the Château built by William the Conqueror on the hill top around 1060 and flanked on either side of the hill by the Abbeys of Saint Étienne and Sainte Trinité.

William and his wife Matilda of Flanders commissioned two more Abbeys - Normandy was after all a major religious centre rather like Burgundy - the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames or Men’s and Women’s Abbeys. Individually these are all magnificent Romanesque buildings but taken together they make a magnificent ensemble.

Caen suffered badly during the D-Day operations of 1944 as the City itself was not liberated till 9th July more than a month after the landings. Large parts of the Vieux Ville were destroyed but have been tastefully restored, much of it using the famous ‘Caen’ Stone which William used to build the Tower of London.