Cap Fagnet

Our ride on the navette took us up to Cap Fagnet, where we walked around a bit, looking at the cliffs, the town below, the chapel, and various interesting Fecampian wedding festivities (next post).

Looking at the cliffs beyond, toward Le Havre

And our next destination, Etretat (you can see one of the arches)

The plage at Fecamp

A bit of the marina

Greater Fecamp

Walking along the cliffs, close enough to hear the giant
whoosh...whoosh...whoosh

The usual warning

Looking back toward Dieppe, and worth the risk

Our Lady of the Salut

One picnic table that won't blow away in the Channel gales

Too bad these won't

Abbatial Church Of The Trinity, Fecamp

Fecamp was the site of a monastery from the 7th century on. Richard II, duke of Normandy in the 10th-11th centuries, founded (chartered) a Benedictine abbey during his reign and built an abbatiale church. That church was struck by lightning and burned down--funny, I thought only heretics like me got struck by lightning--and a new church, of cathedral proportions, was built in the 12th-13th centuries. That is the church we see today, with the usual renovations, fashion-changes, etc. It is more than 400 feet in length and replete with interesting features.

What the abbatiale complex looked like in the 17th century

The Mairie replaces most of the abbey structure; something
about a Revolution (I'm writing on 14 juillet!)

OK, the facade doesn't work; one sees this a great deal, especially
in Italy and Spain and Portugal, where the (west) facade is often
the last part of the church/cathedral built...maybe centuries after
the rest

Inside, a pretty Gothic-looking big church (although not very
high)

Elevation

Crossing

Some wonderful carving in the various chapels

Thus

And thus

Chancel

Choir

Altar

Helpful model

Way-old tombs of Richard and Richard II, dukes
of Normandy

Dormition of Mary, late medieval polychrome
sculpture

Above the Dormition, a 1495 Coronation of Mary

Many of you have written asking what an angel's
foot-print looks like; well, here is one...

"....in the guise of an old man..."

Worn flooring in the aisle

Fecamp

Benedictine has always been one of my favorite liqueurs--in the heyday of my bad habits, B&B and a good cigar (preferably a Macanudo) were a favorite, a marriage made in heaven--and I've always wanted to visit Fecamp, where the brothers concocted the great spirit in the Middle Ages. Visions of alchemist/monks staggering around the cloisters, testing the latest recipes.... With a ferry to catch and plenty of things to see and do in Belgium and Netherlands, we skipped Fecamp the last time we were in Normandy. But this time, Fecamp was on our path, and, as the reader may have noted, we are in no hurry. Three surprises unfolded. One, my notion of medieval monk/alchemists and the development of Benedictine is way off the mark. Two, the real late 19th century story of developing and marketing the spirit is way more impressive. And three, it will take five blog posts to relate the experiences we had during our 24 hours in Fecamp. It's a pretty neat place, original capital of the dukes of Normandy, and much more.

We found the aire in Fecamp with relative ease, and an
especially choice spot, right on the marina on Quai Sadi
Carnot; most of the aire is in a giant parking lot beyond 
the marina; I counted 125 RV's at the aire in Fecamp 
that night; free, of course

Out walking now, looking across the marina to our rig

A few blocks away, the Benedictine Palace...palace? you ask;
yes, we'll get to that in a separate post, where I visit the Palace
while Vicki does the laundry on Sunday

We decided to defer on the Benedictine Palace for the
time being and are walking down Rue Theagene Beaufart (I
swear I am not making that up), and I am about to announce
this is the most boring street in Europe when

We see the Villa Emilie, done by the architect
Olivier le Begue, an incredible Normandy Art
Nouveau specimen, worthy of any of the great
designers of the era

Detail

Ditto; note the balustrade

Wow!

Best we have seen in these parts

We rested briefly at the church of St. Stephen,
which is 2nd or 3rd fiddle in this town

Took in the Saturday market

The remains of the ducal palace

Learned all about the dukes, who descended
directly from Rolland, the Viking chief who
settled in and took over Normandy

Reconnoitered a nearby lavomatique (lavanderia in Italian; if
you want to know any one contrived word in six European
languages laundromat is a good choice)

Then toured the Abbatiale Church in Fecamp (next post); the
big one

And then, after walking a few blocks to the station, we hopped
aboard the local navette (little bus), which, for a euro, gave us
a complete tour of old Fecamp, from cliff-tip to cliff-top (another
post), and returned back to the aire; a long but good day

Veulettes Sur Mer

Not much further down the road, we pulled into the aire at Veulettes sur Mer. The Alabaster coast is dotted with these little breaks in the cliffs, each with a town, large or small, and a beach...and an aire de camping-cars.

Looking north

South

And to sea...

Henri IV Slept Here; Or, Maison d'Henri IV, Saint-Valery-en-Caux

We wandered into Saint-Valery-en-Caux, I can't remember why, and were immediately struck by the Maison d'Henri IV. It's not often you seen a half-timbered building this old, or this size. The structure was built in 1540, and was said to have once hosted Henri IV, le bon roi Henri, the first of the Bourbons (by the Salic law of succession, in case you were wondering), a Protestant who eventually converted to Catholicism ("Paris is worth a mass") but was known for his tolerance in those intolerant times. Said tolerance got him twelve assassination attempts, the last of which was successful. But it's a really nice old maison, even though it contains the city museum, which has, alas, a stern no fotos policy. And not in English too.

The undulating horizontal lines generally suggest great age

What really impressed was the carving all over the building

Thus

Thus

And especially thus

Ditto

Ditto again