Visiting Falaise

 

Normandy...the region ruled by the Dukes of Normandy of which a bastard son conquered England and got crowned as the English king.  Half an hour inland, not too far from Caen is Falaise, the birth town of William the Conquerer.  Just as in Caen, he constructed a massive fort. 

The fortress domains are mostly free to access and show the wide walls and the space inside the walls. Here and there are spectators that show a virtual image of what live would have looked like inside these walls. Very nicely done, to show the business of such a domain with lots of chapels, houses of blacksmiths etc that now can't be spotted anymore. 

You must pay access to visit the Donjon which is not wheelchair accessible, as is the case with most historic fortresses.   You climb via narrow stairs up and down to enter in rooms where historic figures out of the family tree of William the Conquerer tell there stories. Complicated stories of treason, conflicts, disputed heritages to the crown, alliances etc...  up to Richard Lionheart so I had to think of Robin Hood all the time.  We also got tables that showed in virtual reality what the room would have looked like back int eh days. Since the children claimed the monopoly over the tablets and raced around, I was glad that the image was always displayed on an information panel as well. 

Besides the fortress there didn't seem too much to visit in Falaise.