By PAUL.FHAKQOIS CARC9PINO NORMANDY, LAND OF INVASIONS nousnARIF.s, l\1.Al'- lU\-ER-l\IADE After having been defeated at various places, the ,-ikings turned back to their or.iginal starting point in France and began to settle in the Seine 11rea. In 911 their chief was Rollo, also called Rolf tho Walker, beeau e he could not find a horse the Romans, or from Fl'ancus, Hector's son, like tho Franks. THE }"rRST SIEGE OF PAHIS Seven hundred boats, forty thousand men, occupying more than five mileR of the Seine in front of Paris: real invl\!lion of northern France. Paris was not vet known as Paris; it was called Lutece, s'ituat.('(! 011 a small island on the river, but already a capital. This was in Since 800 the North men , or Normans, had been raiding the coasts of Fmnce and, by way of her rivers, France's provinces from the Chan.nel as far Ii the Pyrenees. In 845 Ragnar Lodbrog led his vikings to Paris with a hundred and twenty boats and took the town. In 885 the "ikings, those Scandinavian men sailing from somewhere in the wild north seas, raided the coun- try along tho Seine and the Loire Rivers. As they were pagans they directed their attacks chiefly against, churches, monas-' teries, abbeyR, from which t hey knew they could obtain groat loot. They were roving sailors and, ns such, could not aU remain inactive during that very siege of Paris which lasted for a whole year. They raided the surrounding regions, and Bayeux was t.aken. Propl I"m ",uch of thci, yeoymphy f,om ... by fol/on'illy the cou'.e of the fightil/(J. V"""(J the po.,t It' c!' • ,,1/ n W«'paper UCI1.JUII hllve Ie-tr"ed a y()()(J d "t "bout Sormoll<fy. about its bc"chu. to'('/l8, alld ,ieus. 7'hcy have ,,1"0 nad oj the wlwluule dut,ul'liQn IChi,ch the ;ntv, iO/l h.all brouyht to '"ell, IAl1ieux• • ·oi"t·l,6, A'!1,mlan. l·ol"isc. (Jhtrbour!1, Vi're, and mallY other .\"0'1/1(/1/ 10 fl""". Bitt 'lOt """'y have sun ",ilh their O'I'1l eyell the e.elmordi,la.ry wenlth (II,d bCfluty of So,,,,,,,,,/'!!,.,; c'ulttlral trea-yu,1lS of ycste,day. tI,6 pride of Prance amI fill /!,'flrope, Or hlol/) tlwt th,.,t ,e,!ion heM been the scene of iI/Vf'8',:onll .for the l'UJt 2.000 yenr", Helice fI'C hflve (llIked " FrclII'" author to tell our readers about Nonl/f/lldy.-K.M. 'IT would seem as if certain places were predestined to be used as battlefields. The names of places in Normandy we read today in our newspapers are the same .. those that our llncestors used to hear in &be legenuary songs through which the his- Wry of an ient times up to the Middle Ages has come do\\'n to us. As far l\S we know, Titurius Sabinius, one of Caesar's Iieutenant..." won a battle again t Viridovix in 56 B.C.-ncar the forest of &ouves uocording to legend; near Monte· bourg in the Valognes district according to .arne recent discO\oeriCtl. At the time of ihe ROlllan iu,oasion there were nine 'tribes Ii.ing in whut was th n the province of lieustrie. The namos of eight of t.hese tribes are in the names by which "the inhabitant,s of some of these towns a,re known to this day lUl" for exnmple, "Bajo. (those of Bayeux) or "Lexoviens" (of Lisiellx), or in the names of the towns 1hemselves or the districts. The name of $be ninth tribt>, the "Unelles," was changed into "Constantins" after the founding of (now Coutnnces) by Emperor Constantine, whence eomes the name of Cotentin peninsula. Old ('hroniclers, great lovers of the wonder· ful and prepared to believe e,Terything, relate that the first inhabitants of that region were de eudants of Gomer, the son of Japhet, who was the. on of I-oah. Hence one of the counties near Lisieux is namod "Montgomery" and gave its name to the Montgomery family. To be a member of family was more glorious than to be descended from Eueus, Venus's son, like
Transcript
By PAUL.FHAKQOIS CARC9PINO
NORMANDY,
LAND OF INVASIONS
nousnARIF.s, l\1.Al'- .A~D lU\-ER-l\IADE
After having been defeated at variousplaces, the ,-ikings turned back to theiror.iginal starting point in France and beganto settle in the Seine 11rea. In 911 theirchief was Rollo, also called Rolf tho Walker,beeau e he could not find a horse st~ong
the Romans, or from Fl'ancus, Hector's son,like tho Franks.
THE }"rRST SIEGE OF PAHIS
Seven hundred boats, forty thousand men,occupying more than five mileR of the Seinein front of Paris: I~ real invl\!lion of northernFrance. Paris was not vet known as Paris;it was called Lutece, s'ituat.('(! 011 a smallisland on the river, but already a capital.This was in S~5.
Since 800 the North men , or Normans,had been raiding the coasts of Fmnce and,by way of her rivers, France's provincesfrom the Chan.nel as far Ii the Pyrenees.In 845 Ragnar Lodbrog led his vikings toParis with a hundred and twenty boats andtook the town. In 885 the "ikings, thoseScandinavian men sailing from somewherein the wild north seas, raided the country along tho Seine and the Loire Rivers.As they were pagans they directed theirattacks chiefly against, churches, monas-'teries, abbeyR, from which t hey knew theycould obtain groat loot. They were rovingsailors and, ns such, could not aU remaininactive during that very siege of Pariswhich lasted for a whole year. They raidedthe surrounding regions, and Bayeux wast.aken.
Propl I"m ",uch of thci, yeoymphy f,om ...a'~ by fol/on'illy the cou'.e ofthe fightil/(J. V"""(J the po.,t It' c!' • ,,1/ n W«'paper UCI1.JUII hllve Ie-tr"ed a y()()(J d "t"bout Sormoll<fy. about its bc"chu. to'('/l8, alld ,ieus. 7'hcy have ,,1"0 nad oj thewlwluule dut,ul'liQn IChi,ch the ;ntv, iO/l h.all brouyht to '"ell, IAl1ieux• • ·oi"t·l,6,A'!1,mlan. l·ol"isc. (Jhtrbour!1, Vi're, and mallY other .\"0'1/1(/1/ 10 fl""". Bitt 'lOt """'yhave sun ",ilh their O'I'1l eyell the e.elmordi,la.ry wenlth (II,d bCfluty of So,,,,,,,,,/'!!,.,;c'ulttlral trea-yu,1lS of ycste,day. tI,6 pride of Prance amI fill /!,'flrope, Or hlol/) tlwtth,.,t ,e,!ion heM been the scene of iI/Vf'8',:onll .for the l'UJt 2.000 yenr", Helice fI'C hflve(llIked " FrclII'" author to tell our readers about Nonl/f/lldy.-K.M.
'IT would seem as if certain places werepredestined to be used as battlefields.The names of places in Normandy we
read today in our newspapers are the same.. those that our llncestors used to hear in&be legenuary songs through which the hisWry of an ient times up to the Middle Ageshas come do\\'n to us.
As far l\S we know, Titurius Sabinius, oneof Caesar's Iieutenant..." won a battle again tViridovix in 56 B.C.-ncar the forest of&ouves uocording to legend; near Monte·bourg in the Valognes district according to.arne recent discO\oeriCtl. At the time ofihe ROlllan iu,oasion there were nine 'tribesIi.ing in whut was th n the province oflieustrie. The namos of eight of t.hesetribes are preserv~d in the names by which"the inhabitant,s of some of these towns a,reknown to this day lUl" for exnmple, "Bajo.~.. (those of Bayeux) or "Lexoviens"(of Lisiellx), or in the names of the towns1hemselves or the districts. The name of$be ninth tribt>, the "Unelles," was changedinto "Constantins" after the founding ofConst.llntil~ (now Coutnnces) by EmperorConstantine, whence eomes the name ofCotentin peninsula.
Old ('hroniclers, great lovers of the wonder·ful and prepared to believe e,Terything, relatethat the first inhabitants of that regionwere de eudants of Gomer, the son ofJaphet, who was the. on of I-oah. Henceone of the counties near Lisieux is namod"Montgomery" and gave its name to theMontgomery family. To be a member of~hill family was more glorious than to bedescended from Eueus, Venus's son, like
92 THE XXth CENTURY
It was Oslx-rn ,houting.
Die . . . ," came Mont
I •
II
I
enough to carry him. - After taking RouenlLnd Buycux, he led his llIen t.o Paris, butwithout suceess, Beaten at Chartres, hewas finally ready to come to an agreement.
The two mai.n points of the agreementbetween Rollo and King Charlcs II of li'raneewere, on the one hund, the cession of landby the King and, on the other, the ehri ·t·enjng of the pagan chief. Tllis "gentlemen'sagreement" took place at Saint·Clair-surEpt~, a sllIaU town between Paris andRouen on the Epte River, which lattermarked the limit of Norman-occupied territories. This is how part of 1I0rthernFrance came to be Norman, Normandy, undhow the da.ring 1\ormans became vu-''lsa1s ofthe King of .Frallce. The southern limitswere Lhe Bmsle ~nd Ept.e Rivers ea"t of theSeine, and the Ane Ilnd Dives Hivers t,othe west. Twcnty years later, in 933,Normaudy was given its final boundarieswhen at the df'ath of his father H.ollo,\\!illillm Long.:'word took an oath of aile·~dancc ill rl'tllrn for the cession of the Cotcntinand Ananchin pro\'inel' .
Finally, t.he Coucsnon, a sUlall ri\'l'l' whichmarks the border of Brittan\', shift,ed theposit,ion of its mouth and thus 'placed famollsMont·Saint·l\'1ichel ill Normandy. Hence t,heFn'l1l'h sn~'il1g :
JIG COU.Cf.lIlOn, po'r sa. loU",..tl ,ni.:r Ie .IUoul en NVr1IfUlidic.
En-·n I1ftf'r 11Il\'ing ga,ilwd POfl"l-l;;;;ion ofNormandy and Hpttling there, the ~urnlU,JJ~
remained t rue to the spirit of till.' \'ikings,t host' f<RnW Yildngs who pelll'trat.ed deeplyinto Eastern Europe lIurl ;;ailed t.o Icelund,Grl'ellland, and probably e\'CII America.As an iUw;tratiun of their pride, legclld t.clht.he foUowing story. Bolio, rt>fusing lou kissthe King' foot as a sign of allegiance, askedone of his men to do it fur him; and t,hislatter, instead of bending dowll, took theK iug's foot, and lifted it so high that t hI'King fl'1l over ba·ckwarcls, to the greatenjoyment of the Norman spcctaturs.
RO IIJ'atT AN U \Vll.LIAIU
\\'hell t he Normans were. gi¥'en rest frominLemal disturbltnces, their thollghts immediatcly turued to somo conq ue,'t to bemade or to some distant expedition to theHoly Llllld to obt.ain forgiveness for Ilomedreadful murder. Thf'Y usuaUy . ct out ontheir journeys from Naples, Amalfi, or Bari,port.s trading wit.h the NOM' East, as theywere accustomed to \'isit.ing the'anctuaries
of Monte Cassino and Monte Gargllno, thelatter beillg dedicated also to Saint l\'lichacl,a.':I was the fa mOils Korman monastery_Thus such Normans as, for instance, thesons of Tllncred de Haute\'iUe, a poor gentleman from Cot-entin, went to Italy, fOllghtagainst Greeks und Saracens, and obtainedfrom Popt's Leo IX and Nicholas If theprovince of Calabria llnd the island of Sicily,which latter they made into 11 kingdom in1130.
About 11 hundred year" after the l1b'TCC
menlo of Saint-Clair-,mr-Epte. the Duchy ofNormandy was ruled by Robert the Devil,who had his headquarters Itt Falaisc, theepitome of all that is romant ic in old castles,n great gray pile of round tower ulld squarekeep. The story goes that, when he WitH ayouth of eighteen, he espied a matu>r ofinterest through the castle window. IInderthe f1owt>ring trees was a pll blic place wherewomen gltthered to wash their linen, Oneof the;;e was a young girl of silch Ix-alltythat tIl(' youth feU in love with llPr lit. firstsight and' sent for her to be brought t.o thecastle. ArleUu WIlS Iwr nanll', And shebecame the mother of a. SOli, named \oVilliam.
Even vcste I'd11\' , t he women of Fu Iui;;e8t.iLl was'hed 1h~ir clothes in that samealleient brook and talked of Arlettf' unciher phcllomf'mtl SOli, who beeume KingWilliam I of England and weill. down inhistory us William the Conqueror.
When WiLlinD) wus seven years old, hi.father, Robert the De\'il, wen't to t.he HolyLund and made over the Duchy of KormandyLo his Hon. r\ certain night ill the year1039, young William WR.'! s.leepillg by the8ide of his steward Osbern, his tutor hu\'ingbeen treacherously slaill not lung before_Suddelll\' William awoke. The curtain wasmo\'ing,' somebody was in the room, AndOsbern was sleeping dl'eply. Should hewake him? Too late, II man leaped ontothe Led.
"Hf'lp! Help!"
"_-\Jl! Bastard!Gommeri's allswer.
Osbern wus dead, amI "'iUilllll uddenlyrealized how great his power might b\~ tllat11 Mont GomJUeri, allied to the great Talvasof Bellcme, should have tried to kill him.
A HLM.AS DOCU:ME~T
The story 'of WilJiulll'S conquest ofEngland is told by the famous BnyeuxTapestry, one of those relics of t.he pust of
About It 111111' IdT till' .·,Il ..... t flf :\"rllliIIHI.\ 1'1..;.· .... till' ";11:.,:.11'.1.1:11' I'lwk Ilf _\1111It-~:lild-:\lwlll'l, "flt·r,· 1)"111',1,,'11111' 1111'111, .... 1111111,1,·,1
A fYI,i,o,,1 l.il Qi Iii .. 'O(ln~t "f :\ornll\l1d~'o TLldn~·. a.~ Jila'I~' a~ not, it ;s pitted w;tlt tlte 'Taters made ItyLUllILs a11U shells Jl11U slrfW11 \lilh the litter uf an ;11\o a6;U11
:SOI01ANDY, LA1"\1) OF I:sYASIOJliS
which everyonc has heard. The fift~'-eight
ecenes, two of which we ha\'e reproduced,were embroidered on linen by Mathilda,William's wife, and ~i\'e a pictorial idea ofthe Norman conquest. Crude as it is ind..ign, and partly defaced, it ne\'erthelessre-creates a momentous ('\'ent in the world's.history. It, star·tR with William assemblingaven hunclrc'd boats at the mouth of theDivC8 and "Ull innulllemblo host of horsf'lDen, sLingers, archers, lind foot soldiers."They were tho biggei'lt bouts for their time,the largest bf.ing able to hold fifl~' knightsfuUy cquipp d with all their horses andmen.
Tho two l'('cl inn." frolll tho BnYPllx TnpeslryreproOur."<! in Ihis art ",Ie ~ho\\' scelll'S f"omtll lifo of \\'illilllll thl' ('ollque,..,r. Thi" onod pic I Iho Bntll" of HIl<llllg< ill 10(10. ill
\\'I.ieh \\'ilIiIlJIl [,'Jllqll"""d Ellglund
This lapp;,lry, intend('d for the Bayeux.Cathedrnl, lay up 10 the prescnt war in t~
double-glnss ('nSl' in t he old bishop':) pn.lac(',~8ed as Ihe town library.
• As Il rrsult of the Xorl11:ln conquest, t.hrEnglisb parlin.ment used Nurman I'-l'Onchfor more than four hundred \-eur. whenrequesting the king t,o npp1'OYC ~r rdect hislaw. Although the old Xor,;e tongue diedout quickly in Normandy. we can Htill findtokens of it...; ~('audinll\'ian ori~in in suchplace names as: l';lIIdelwc (b,'c meaningrivulet); I-In.rt1eur and Bn.rflcur (.flela lUeaningmall river c1l1lnn(·I); ¥Y!'t-ot (lot meaningturf). Or in those names ending .in: beuf(oncampm('ni); dal (miley): ham (Litt.le viI·lage, hamle-to): gnrd (garde-n); liltS (bow;e);torp (\'illl1ge); bri('que- (hridge); and dic)!(deep).
1.1"11'0 nISTORY
Baycux was, unl,il the prescnt in\"llsion, aquiet little town dozing around its cat,hodrul,with short strolls lcailing to it.s stragglingborderll. The cathedral, one of the mosLbeautiful in all France, reprcsentcJ a partic-
95
ularly complete example of Xorman art.BuilL on tho rema.ins of a H,omlul basilicaat the beginning of the twelfth century, theeathedml acquired n centra.! tower in theflam bO~'l\nt style in t.he fift('cnt h ccntury, aswell as two lateral towers of t.he t~'pe com·monly found ill all the silhouette", pointingto the 81iY from Cotentin to the di"trict ofCalix.
The surrollmljng countryside is very grecnand of the flu,t, ruther monotonous charactertypical of the region of Cllell. It is the leaHtpicturesque part of Normandy and goesdown to a seashore without cliffs invariablvconsisting of sandy beadles bordered bysand dunes. Only the "rnall town of 1'ortcll·Hessin present; t.ht' piclul'l"sqlle "ight of afishing harbor of n.ncicnt. tiJU(' .
CaRn (rhymes with clans), nn Ihe otherhane!. p['()\-ides a nole of contrast in it.!'surrouudings. Here William the ('onqu('rorreign.' I:'Uprellle, not us a conqueror but usIt Illltn ill priYat(' life. Through a mazc ufLnsy "tr('('\;;; one muy Sf'C alllong muny beun.tiful b!lildings t.llC gr('ut Norman Abbey of:'-'ninL Etif'nne. aL"o called the ··.-\hbfl\-C·;lUXHomme.... " \\'illiam. who had nHlrr~ied hiseou"in 'lnthilda, hoped 1).\' thi" ~ift to Ihl'('hurch to be forgiven by Ih(' Poj)(' for hi",marringc. :\1, the same limc, 011 the opposil.f· "idl' of tlte 10WII, Queen ~·la.t.hildn
built La Trinit(·. also kllown n;;; I,he "Abbayeflux·Dalllt'''.' ;\IlIthildn wus bnried 1Iere-.and latcr 011 William WUR bnried in thrAbbf'Y of ~;lillt ~;ti(,l1IH'. Both a('(- ,,"perbcxam/,I(';;; of \'1Ic archit('ctllrc which Ilrec('uedth(' rise of earh- C:othic in Ihe thirte('lItltcentury, inspirc;' by t1lo archil,cetnl'lll forlllfrom northern hah' whidl, in .!\ormallhands, I)('cumc n di;;;till('ti\'e living t,hingmarked by great size, simp1icil~·. ma,·"i\·c·IIt'SS, !lnd love oT geolllet,rical orlllllllcllt·S.1'11(';;;e and many other chnrche: lIlId buildingsmllke ('aen ll. NormUon Athcns nnd fill unri"al('d cellter for the. tnlly of :\01'111:111 art.
(':1l'n \Va.'! grclll-er than fln~- town in Englandexcept London when King Edward TIl ofEngland f'ntercd it on July 16, 13·JG.
".DIS"IDE:-lCE" ALlU:ADY'
'I'll<' English King had il1\·aded~ormandy.
He landed at •'nint- Vall 't-Ia- Hongllc on theCol,cntin j)f'lIinsula, following tIll advice ofa Norman "di!l8ident " (;cotfrov d'Hurcollrt,sire of Saint-Sauvcur.le- VieOl~lLe. Violent,amhitious, detcrminoo to be Duke of Normandy-not under Lhe King of Fnlllce butas a \'a:sal of the King of Engllllld-Geoffroy
96 THE XXth OENTURY
led the English army through his country,which was laid waste. The invaders landedat Valognes, in the heart of Cotentin. Thisancient Gullo-Roman town of "AIaunia"was for a long time proud and pretentious;little by little it, fell asleep, to become a quietIiWe place.
]<'rom there the English went to Carentan-Carentan, where Kapoleon started to builda cana.1 through the peninsula in order toa.void sailing around the capes of La Hougueand La Hague; Carentan, situated in such aflat landscape that the Douve, Seye, Merderet, Seves, and Tante Rivers, whi<:h runthrougb it, see the coming tide flowing backfa.r inland when the floodgates remain open.The King of England was astonished at thewealth Rnd size of the towns which, howevel', did not prevcnt him from setting fireto Valognes, Car .ntan, and Saint-La,
Up to the present, Caen enjoyed a brisktrade with Le Havre via the entrancingcanal of Ouistreham. The harbor ofOuislrcham was used by the English in thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries when theyshipped home the loot collected in successfulraids on Caen.
l'RANCE'S TWO PATRON SA.ll/TS
But aU Norman roads finally lead toRonen, passing through Lisieux. In Lisieuxa basilica wa·s recently built to Saint Therese,the young nun ca.nonized 'only twenty-eightyears after her death, whom Pope PiusXlI has just made the second patron saintof Fram·c.
Rouen, Gothic queen of France, is theancient c!tpital of the duchy. Here "eachmonument is a book, each stone a, souvenir."Yet still more appealing than architectureor u,ntiquities is the figure of Joan of Arc.:For Ronen is her town, saturated with theglorious and tragic memories of the heroine.The Rpirit of Joan of Arc, who helpedto liberate I~rance from the English, stillhovers ovcr the market place where, condemned for 'havin~ fBllen back into errors,"she went to her fiery martyrdom. TodayRouen is in flames, flames added by theEnglish to htlr pyre.
One of H,ollen's landmarks is the tower ofthe big clock, whose single hand has, thanlisto COlIstltnt repair, poillted the time fOl'
more thun four hundred years. The Cathedral of Notre Dame is a superb example ofthe evolution of Gothic architecture in aUits plcnitude, from the Romanesquc up to the
flamboyant. Of particular interest are thetwo dissimilar towers, that of Saint Romain,which soberly united the three architecturalstyles, and the Tower of Butter, so-calledbecause the money for its construction wasprovided by people who wanted to eatbutter during Lent. This latter i::l aU thatone could dream in carvings of lacelikedelicacy covering a structure of stronglines. With the cathedral, the two churchesof Saint Maclou and Saint Ouen completeda wonderful trinity of religious art..
FIGHTING THE ENGLISH
After the martyrdom of Joan of Arc, theFrench rose up aga,inst the English. Normandy was in full ferment, and the "Godons"-as the English were nicknamed bythe French after the familia,r English swearwords "God damnl"-were hunted downeverywhere. '
A short truce, and in less than a yearthere were almost no more English in thecountry, while a general amnesty wasgranted to the FranlJ4£s ren,:bJ, who hadserved the English. This was bad news forthe English, and a new army was sent toNormandy via Cherbourg. Cherbourgwhich was to be fortified by Vauban in theseventeenth century and later chosen byNapoleon as It naval port for his maindefense against England-was the last Frenchtown in English hands. From there theyadvanced again on Valognes and throughthe Cotentin peninsula along the Vire Riverto Bayeux. They stopped at Formigny andwere defeated in April 1449 in the territoryof Aignerville, where names such as Preaux-Anglais, Piece-aux-Anglais, and Tombeuu-aux-Anglais recall their memory.
In 1528, Normandy fOllnd itself involvedin the religious wars. Catholics with thehelp of King Philip II of Spain and Prot·estants with the support of Queen Elizltbethof England were fighting each other. Rauenwas a Protestant town as were Bayeux,Coutances, Falai!'e, Vire, Carentan. Antoinede BOlubon, the fa.ther of the future KingHenry IV. attacked Rouen, which wasdefended by the Count of Montgomery.The fall of the town gave all of Normandyto the Catholics, but not for long, for thefall of Caen soon after reversed the situation.History tells us that the Queen of hnglandpromised a lot of help to the Normans. butthat the actual help given was very weakand, moreover, paid for dearly by the eessionof thc port of Le Havre.
Jilt ho spring of 19-\-1 Germany called up h£'r yOlUlg men horn in I !l26.\Y'hflt rI,)es this mean in figuros? ACf:ording to otTicinl stntisticA. 1;:$2.:.170 b()~'A
wero borll in tho old torrit,ory of tho Reil'll ill I,hnt, YOIU'. i.o .. oxcluu,illK Allsu'; ...the ""Ol(ll'l.o""te. ek. Some IU% of thosa boys diull uOLweell tho yenr, I U:lGund IlI,I-I. So I,hat. by tho "pring of ItI'I'!. G:I1.lllO yOllllg mon bom in I\l:!(l woroslill IIli",'. As tho rostllt of the c(lr<lful ,nedie.. l and IIthlelie suI' 'r"is;on of\(;ermntl yuuth. tho tlumbor of tho (> lIt1fit for milil"ry Il<'r"ieo i.s UIIII"lIllll." luw.namcly. nccordjng to a 'I'rnruluc lin report uoted Mar 'h III. 1944. ) ,JuU" Hellcothe mnlcll born i,n 19:!U now cnJled up ropresent an i,"'roullO of moru t hnll hulf.\ milliun yOllng mon--<>l'iginuting 801l.'1y from tho old territory vi t hl' Heil'llfOl' tho U rrOOH Army,
NORMANDY. LAND OF.INVASlONS 97
from the North Sea and the Channel toSicily and Italy.
THE NORMANDY OF YESTERDAY
In a. landscape of greell, tbe Normall ofyesterday not only rui~cd cattle and hoI' 'OS,
made butter and cheese, known all o\'cr theworld liS lsigny butter, Camembert and:Pont-I'Eveql!e cheesl:': they aLso had pros·perous imlustries such Ill:! that of Huuenlinen, Alen\,oll lace, Cberbourg mirror.,.. andfaiences of Rouen. Normand\' is also thel8Jld of good food with sueh ;pecialities asandouillettcs (small sausages) from Vire undtripe.s a fa 'II/.ode de Ca,en, with which 0110must drink Normandy'" favorite bevC'l'l1gc,apple cider.
This part of France, which nature 8(1{'IllS
to have showered with bel' gifts, u.\so gaveFrance writers like Malherbe, Corneille,,Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Bu,rbeyd'Aul'o\'illyGuy de Maupassant, and Fluubcrt, mu!!ieillllSLike Aubert, and BoeIdieu. Who hasnot seen ILt leacllt a reproduction of "TbeAngelus" by Millet or "Le Radeau de /,(",Medu,se" by Gcricault" bot,h 80ns of Normandy, IHi was Nicolas POllssin, the masterof classical paint,ing in France'! Science,too, owes something to Normandy: Laplaceand Lc Verrier are well.known astronomers,Ilnd Fresnel brought II bout great progressin the field of optics.
In spite of these famous names in somany different spherc:'!, the Norman remainsa peasant well balanced in milld, thriftywithout being a miser, 11 hard worker, findfllmouB for his special way of answeringquestions: "]>'t eire oen qu'oui! P't ei,rc oenqU'nol1!{' ("Maybe yCH, maybe no!"). Andwhen he Icaves his country for a while, healways bellI'S in mind the Xormall t!ung :
J'irai r wir ma ","ormandie,C'es/. lc pays qui /II'a dOl/ne Ie juur,
eonscripfs tfJorn in 1926
GBO T 0.- THE PAST
The occupations of Normn.ody in 1815,1870, and 1114,O did not load to anythinglike the destruction experienced in formC('clap. But the reports about the pre8Cntinvasion speak of total destruction beingwrought by the ilwasion of 1944. Thisleaves us little hope that even part of thoseiDeetimable treal'lurc::l of French history andEuropean art, will be saved.
The present Will' has linked up aU thoseIIIJDCS that stand out in Norman history.Nonnandy itself is once again being inyaded; one of the commanding generals islWned Montgomery. The towns of Bayeux, Caen, Carentan, ValogneR, Cherbourghave been the Bcenes of bloody fighting andwholesale destruction; the invaders themIl8Ivcs, Americans, English, Canadians, include without dOli bt l:lome del:leonda,nts ofthose Iwventurou::l Norman emigrants; andtbe various European war theaters meniioned in the communiques of thil:l war wereonce t,he ,cenes of t h exploit!! of those sameNormans, from H,lIssilL to the Ncar Ecu:lt,
After all thi trouble there wag a periodGI peace and order, which men from Normandy made use of to penetrate into thoSaint Lawrence c~tllary in North America.Led by Cartier and Champlain, they builtQaeboo and Moot,real, th us laying the founda.tion of Canada.
In 1759, Cherboul'g was destroyed by theEnglish. Caen etlcaped a similar flLte thanksto & clever trick played on the English by• coastgun.rd nll.mcd Cabieu: when theylIDded in the Orne cstuary lit night, theywere surprised to hear a drum being beaten.and orders being shouted by Cabieu to an~nary French army. So they quicklyre-embarked to IH'oid pursuit.
