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Hi I'm Rick Steves, continuing to explore
more of the best of Europe.
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This time we're in the northwest of France,
enjoying Normandy
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friendly locals, crepes, Camembert,
waterlillies, and big abbeys.
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Thanks for joining us.
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While it's seen more than its share of war,
today Normandy is a peaceful and welcoming place.
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With its thought-provoking sights and memorials,
delicious cuisine, and idyllic nature,
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it's no wonder this region is such
a popular get-away for nearby Parisians.
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After exploring the half-timbered charm of Rouen,
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we'll reflect on lilypads at Monet's garden,
peek in on local craftspeople,
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00:01:08,211 --> 00:01:10,453
set up an easle at Honfleur,
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enter Erik Satie's excentric musical mind
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remember D-Day
(and another invasion nine centuries earlier)
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and take a pilgrim's hike to an enchanted abbey.
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Of France's many regions, Normandy is strategically
located across from England and handy to Paris.
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From Rouen we side-trip to Giverny,
travel to Bayeux,
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and see the dramatic D-Day Beaches
before finishing at Mont St. Michel.
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But history of Normandy is filled with war.
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Viking Norsemen who settled here in the 9th century
gave Normandy its name.
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The 7th duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror,
invaded England from these shores.
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Joan of Arc, who rallied the French against the English,
was burned at the stake in Normandy.
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And on these beaches a WWII battle was fought
that changed the course of history.
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The stirring sights associated with each of these events
turn many visitors into history buffs.
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Nearly 1200 years ago,
the Vikings made this town, Rouen, their capital.
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William the Conqueror called it home
before moving to England.
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During the middle ages Rouen, with 40000 residents,
was France's second largest city.
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Only Paris was bigger.
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In the 12th century, half of today's France
was ruled by England.
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Caught in the middle, Rouen walked a political tightrope
between England and France for centuries.
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And because Rouen was an important English base
during the Hundred Years' War,
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this is where Joan of Arc was burned.
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Today Rouen mixes dazzling Gothic architecture
and contemporary bustle beautifully.
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It's a busy port with a pedestrian-friendly old town
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and a grand cathedral standing as a reminder
of the town's historic importance.
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The spire was made of cast iron in the late 1800s
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about the same time Eiffel
was building his tower in Paris.
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At nearly 500 feet, it's the tallest in France.
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00:03:07,933 --> 00:03:12,650
Rouen's ornate public clock has decorated
the former city hall for 500 years.
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Back then, just having an hour hand
offered ample precision.
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The lamb at the end of the hour hand is a reminder
that wool was the source of Rouen's wealth.
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And the artistic highlight
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leaned way back, fills the underside of the arch
with the good shepherd� and lots of sheep.
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The thriving wool trade
stoked Rouen's medieval building boom.
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Because the chalky limestone quarried from the cliffs
of the Seine River nearby, was so expensive
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and it wasn't too great for building quality,
i can actually mess it up with my thumb
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and because the oak around here was so plentiful,
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half-timbered buildings became a Rouen forte.
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The oak beams provide the structural skeleton of the building.
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The gaps were then filled in with a mix of clay,
straw, and pebbles� and plastered over.
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Wander the back lanes and peek into shops.
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This flowery and pastel hat shop
is the last of its kind in Rouen
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the hat maker is considered a treasure
by her devoted clientelle.
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Just around the corner, Monsieur Augy welcomes
shoppers to browse through his studio
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and see Rouen's china (known as Faience)
being made the traditional way.
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First the clay is molded and carefully trimmed by hand.
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After being fired, dipped in enamel,
and dried, it's lovingly hand-painted.
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A second firing gives it its characteristic glaze.
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In the 1700s, Rouen had 18 factories
churning out the popular product.
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Today, the Augy family carries on the Fiaence tradition.
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On the market square a cross marks the spot where
Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake in the 15th century.
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As the demoralized French were reeling
under English occupation,
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this teenager of supreme faith,
after hearing divine voices,
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won the confidence of the French people.
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Dressed as a man, she was given an army,
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and rallied her countrymen
against their English invaders.
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In 1431, 19-year-old Joan of Arc
was taken by the English,
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convicted of heresy and burned right here.
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As the flames engulfed her, an English soldier said,
�Oh, my God, we've killed a saint�.
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Nearly 500 years later, Joan was made a saint�
and he was proven correct.
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Mid-way between Rouen and Paris,
about an hour's drive away, is Giverny.
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00:06:02,295 --> 00:06:06,910
Claude Monet, the father of the Impressionist movement,
spent his last 40 years here
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finding inspiration in these gardens.
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The colors of his cottage garden
are like his brushstrokes
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they seem untamed and slap-dash,
but are part of a carefully composed mosaic.
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He diverted a stream, made a pond,
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filled it with water lilies and built a footbridge
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which eventually became overgrown with wisteria.
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Museums in Paris bloom
with Monet's garden paintings.
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Impressionism was a revolutionary movement
in European art
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the rage in the 1870s.
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Many artists abandoned realism in favor
of this innovative style which captured light,
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glimmers and reflections.
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Impressionist art evokes the subtlties of nature.
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The artist, using short brushstrokes
of different colors placed side by side
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suggests shimmering light.
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The true subject is not really the lilies,
but the changing reflections on the surface of the pond.
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As he grew older,
Monet cropped the scene ever closer,
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until there was no shoreline, no horizon,
no sense of what's up or down.
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For dinner, I'm joining my friend and fellow tour guide
Sabine Leteinturier back in Rouen.
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For what you'd expect to spend
in a modest American restaurant,
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we're enjoying the full,
fun-loving ritual of fine dining in France.
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This is classic Normandy cuisine
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and tonight we're going to experince the four seas.
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We're going to have the cream,
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Camembert, cider.
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and the cream you can find it right in the sauce
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You have red wine, foie gras and creme.
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and the sauce is something that's very important
in the Normandy cuisine.
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In a fine french meal, the main plate is followed by a cheese
course, in this case cream gives way to Camembert,
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which is only one of many tasty Normandy cheeses.
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So all of this cheese really is from this region,
from a few miles from here
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I love this concept of eating locally.
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You eat locally, it's distributed locally,
and you just enjoy it locally.
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The region is also famous for its apples,
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which are savored as cider, or
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Apple souffle with calvados.
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The four season Normandy:
cream, camembert, cider, calvados.
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Our next stop is just down the road.
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Honfleur escaped the bombs of World War II
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and feels as picturesque as it looks.
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Gazing at its snug harbor, it's easy to overlook
the historic importance of this port.
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This is where the Seine River meets the English Channel.
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For over a thousand years,
sailors have enjoyed Honfleur's ideal location.
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While busy conquering England,
William received supplies shipped from Honfleur.
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00:09:39,823 --> 00:09:44,615
And Canadians know Honfleur for Samuel de Champlain
who sailed from here in 1608,
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discovering the St. Lawrence Waterway
and establishing Quebec City.
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The harbor, once fortified with a wall and two gates,
is now an easy-going marina.
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Today's Honfleur, long eclipsed by the gargantuan port
of Le Havre just across the Seine,
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happily uses its past as a bar stool and sits on it.
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00:10:07,084 --> 00:10:10,408
Honfleur's Church of St. Catherine is worth a visit.
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It was built by a community with plenty
of boat builders and no cathedral architects.
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If you fliped it, it would float.
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00:10:20,344 --> 00:10:26,113
When the first nave was built in the mid-1400s,
it was immediately apparent they needed more space
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so they built another.
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Many consider Honfleur the birthplace of Impressionism.
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Just as Monet once did, artists still come here to catch
the light playing on the harborfront and reflecting in the water.
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It was in places like this that
the battle cry of the Impressionists
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�Out of the studio and into the light!�
was born.
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Just down the street, visitors don headsets to explore
the boyhood home of composer Erik Satie
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which presents his music in a whimsical way.
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Wandering from room to room, you enjoy
fragments of Satie's music along with his life story.
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Surreal images complement the music,
reflecting how radical the parisian art scene was in the 1920s.
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And for a musical finale, you get some exercise�
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For lunch, we're harborfront at a cr�perie.
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A fun specialty both here in Normandy
and in neighboring Brittany is cr�pes.
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Savory cr�pes are made with buckwheat and called galettes.
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While plain-looking, they come filled with
what you'd expect on a pizza or in an omelet.
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Traditionally, cr�pes are washed down
with hard and tasty cidre.
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You can get it sweet or dry.
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Our rooms are in a Chambre d'Hote�
a French Bed & Breakfast.
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Settling into a French home rather than a hotel,
saves you money while getting you closer to the culture.
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We're in the home of gregarious
Madame Giaglis.
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It's just the kind of place I seek out
and recommend in my guidebooks.
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She and her husband Antoine offer
a welcoming lounge and six rooms�
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each as inviting as the owners.
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Distances in Normandy are short and,
as long as you stick to the autoroute
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well worth the tolls, you'll make very good time.
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Our next stop is Bayeux.
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Its Saturday morning and this normally sleepy square
has erupted into a busy farmers' market.
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The long tradition of those who grow it selling directly
to those who eat it thrives throughout France.
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And the food couldn't be fresher.
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Bayeux's claim to fame is the Bayeux Tapestry
which hung in this cathedral.
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It's a 900-year old embroidery which tells the story of
arguably the most memorable event of the Middle Ages
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the pivitol Battle of Hastings in 1066.
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The tapestry now hangs proudly
in a museum just down the street.
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Headsets narrate the 230-foot long cartoon
telling the story of William the Conqueror
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and the Battle of Hastings.
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Don't worry� if you lose your place,
you'll find supertitles in Latin.
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England's King Edward was about to die without an heir.
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The big question: Who would succeed him.
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Harold, his English brother-in-law,
or William, his French cousin?
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King Edward chose the frenchman William.
But when the king died, Harold grabbed the throne.
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William, then known as William the Bastard,
thought the throne was rightfully his.
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So he prepared his army, gathering weapons
and coats of mail and sailing from Normandy
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across the English channel to the south coast of England.
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He met Harold at the town of Hastings,
where they fought a fierce 14-hour battle.
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While the English fought valiantly, the Normans
had an advantage: horses with stirrups.
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Historians attribute their victory to these stirrups.
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Extra details of the battle show up below
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Here, dead soldiers are being stripped
of their valuable armor.
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Harold was killed, arrow in the eye� ouch !
and his Saxon forces were routed.
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The end of the tapestry is lost but
the end of the story is well known:
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William, now �William the Conqueror�
marched into London and claimed his throne.
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Now he was both Duke of Normandy
and King of England.
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Bayeux, with a pleasant town center
and only six miles from the D-Day beaches,
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makes a great home base for visiting the area's sights.
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Along the 75 miles of Atlantic coast nearby
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you'll find countless memories of
the largest military operation in history.
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It was on these beautiful beaches,
at the crack of dawn, June 6, 1944,
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that the Allies finally gained a foothold in France
and Nazi Europe began to crumble.
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During the D-Day invasion, American troops and their allied partners
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courageously assaulted the German-occupied
cliffs using grappling hooks and ladders.
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While ultimately victorious,
they suffered horrendous losses.
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Smashed German bunkers and bomb craters remain,
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only hinting at the unimagineable carnage
and chaos of that momentous day.
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The small town of Arromanches
was ground zero for the D-Day invasion.
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Almost overnight, the allies erected an immense pre-fab port
enabling them to begin their victorious push to Berlin.
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Imagine the building of this incredible harbour.
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Seventeen old ships, steamed across
the English Channel and were sunk
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bow to stern, creating a four mile long protective breakwater.
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00:16:34,814 --> 00:16:40,258
Then with massive contrete platforms and
roads floating on pontoons nearly a mile long
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the harbour was completed.
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Within six days 300,000 allied troops and all their equipment
had established a beachhead here in France.
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And in less than a year�the war was over.
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Today, sixty years later, the town, with its beach combers,
holiday trinkets, and families at play,
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still seems to celebrate the allied victory.
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Peace came at a huge price.
The invasion cost over 4000 allied lives.
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The American Cemetery at St. Laurent
crowns a bluff just above Omaha Beach
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and the eye of the D-Day storm.
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Thousands of tombstones glow in memory of Americans
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who gave their lives here to help free Europe.
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The bluff overlooks the piece
of Normandy beach called �the portal of freedom.�
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While tranquil now, for those of us who weren't there,
the horror of that day is impossible to imagine.
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From the memorial, with a bronze statue
symbolizing the spirit of American's youth
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a peaceful sea of crosses invites those visiting to wander
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00:17:50,868 --> 00:17:56,563
and ponder the sacrifice so many
brave men made in the cause of freedom.
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Immediately after the war,
all the bodies were buried in temporary graves.
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00:18:07,499 --> 00:18:10,018
In the 1950s, this cemetary was established
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00:18:10,143 --> 00:18:14,649
the families decided if the bodies should remain
with their comrades or be brought home.
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Officers are disproportionately represented.
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Their families figured they'd prefer
to be buried next to the men they commanded
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00:18:21,157 --> 00:18:22,972
and with whom they fought and died.
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Nearby, another military cemetery
is the resting place of 21,000 German soldiers.
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The centerpiece symbolizes
German mothers and fathers who lost their children.
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The site, glum, with two graves per simple marker
and dark crosses that huddle together in groups of five
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is a somber reminder that many young Germans
were victims of Hitler as well.
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The best WWII museum in France is in Caen
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the first big city freed by the allies.
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Officially named the Memorial for Peace,
it puts the Battle for Normandy in a broader context.
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You start with a downward spiral stroll,
tracing (almost psychoanalyzing) the path Europe followed
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from the end of World War I to the rise of fascism
and into World War II.
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You'll get a thorough look at how World War II was fought
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from individual weapons
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to floating airports
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to the two-ton V1,
the unmanned predecessor of today's smart bombs
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to the D-Day landings.
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The Cold War wing gives an overview
of the bipolar world that followed WWII.
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It gives insights into the battle waged by the USSR
and the USA for the hearts and minds of their people
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until the collapse of Communism in 1989.
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The memorial then takes you beyond war.
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The Gallery of Nobel Peace Prizes
celebrates the irrepressible human spirit.
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It honors the courageous and too-often-inconspicuous
work of people like Albert Schweitzer,
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Mother Teresa,
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Martin Luther King,
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and many lesser known champions of justice
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who understand that true peace is
more than just an absence of war.
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The contemplative finale is a walk through
the U.S. Armed Forces Memorial Garden.
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Plaques honor the sacrifice
young American soldiers made for Europe.
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The sight of children enjoying this memorial
as a playground captures the spirit
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of the quote etched in the pavement:
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�From the heart of our land
flows the blood of our youth,
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given to you in the name of freedom.�
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Our next stop, an hour's drive away,
is Mont St. Michel.
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For over a thousand years, the silhouette of this
island abbey has sent pilgrim's weary spirits soaring.
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Today it does the same for tourists.
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Mont St. Michel, which through the ages
has been among the top pilgrimage sites in Christendom,
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floats like a mirage on the horizon.
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The vast Bay of Mont St. Michel,
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which turns into a mudflat at low tide,
has long played a key role here.
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Since the sixth century, hermit monks
came here in search of solitude.
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The word �hermit� comes from
an ancient Greek word meaning �desert.�
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The closest thing to a desert
in this part of Europe was the sea.
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Imagine the �desert� this bay provided
as the first monk climbed that rock
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trying to get closer to God.
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The rock, capped by an abbey,
was even more isolated by its mythic tides.
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Pilgrims crossed the mudflat quickly and carefully
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knowing that the sea swept in
�at the speed of a galloping horse.�
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In the late 1800s, a road was built,
connecting the island to the mainland
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and letting pilgrims come and go without hip boots
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The town of Mont St. Michel, with only 30 residents,
entertains over 2 million visitors a year.
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Its main street, lined with shops and hotels
leading up to the abbey, is grotesquely commercial.
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It's some consolation to remember that,
even back in the Middle Ages, this was a retail gauntlet,
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with stalls selling souvenir medallions,
candles, and fast food� like omelets.
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An island specialty is quick, tasty,
and extremely fluffy omelets.
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They were popular for eat-and-run
pilgrims who needed to beat the tide
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and they remain a hit with visitors today.
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Enjoy the show as cooks make sure
the traditional beat goes on.
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You can skirt the main street crowds and
enjoy Mont St. Michel's fine 15th-century fortifications
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by following the ramparts up to the abbey.
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They were built to defend against
a new weapon: the cannon.
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Rather than tall, they were low,
to make a smaller target.
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While the English took all the rest of Normandy,
they never conquered this well-fortified island.
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Because of its stubborn success against
the English through all those years,
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Mont St. Michel became a symbol of French national identity.
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As you climb the stairs to the abbey,
imagine the pilgrims and monks
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who for centuries have climbed these same stone steps.
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00:23:42,889 --> 00:23:46,738
Mont St. Michel has been a holy place since the year 708,
when, according to legend,
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when the Archangel Michael apperaed to a local bishop
in a vision, and convinced him to build here.
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00:23:53,012 --> 00:23:57,064
This was an immense building project
evolving over many centuries.
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00:23:57,267 --> 00:24:00,975
It was a marvel, a medieval skyscraper,
built upon a rock�
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crowned by a gilded statue of Saint Michael.
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00:24:04,887 --> 00:24:07,719
The bay stretches from Normandy to Brittany.
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00:24:08,579 --> 00:24:12,459
The river marks the historic border between the two lands.
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00:24:14,759 --> 00:24:17,497
Brittany and Normandy have long
vied for Mont St. Michel.
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00:24:17,686 --> 00:24:21,269
In fact, the river used to pass on the other side,
making the abbey part of Brittany.
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00:24:21,519 --> 00:24:26,635
Today Mont St. Michel is just barely,
but thoroughly, part of Normandy.
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00:24:27,823 --> 00:24:31,578
The centerpiece of this extraordinary abbey is its church.
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00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,695
While it's mostly 11th century Romanesque
(with round arches and small windows),
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the apse behind the altar was built later.
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00:24:40,386 --> 00:24:45,659
Its Gothic pointed arches and bigger windows
fill the sanctuary with light.
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00:24:48,239 --> 00:24:51,666
Sitting atop all this heavy construction,
like a delicate flower
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is the abbey's cloister.
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00:24:53,841 --> 00:24:56,610
In this peaceful zone,
which connected various rooms,
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monks would grow vegetables and medicinal herbs.
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They'd meditate and read the Bible.
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And, for thoughtful travelers today,
this abbey still inspires.
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So much of France's rich heritage survives,
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and here in Normandy perhaps better
than any other part of the country, it inspires us all.
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Thanks for joining us.
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And vive la France!
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I'm Rick Steves.
Until next time
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keep on travelin'
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Au revoir.
31247
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