William the Conqueror's Falaise Castle

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We are learning a lot of history on this trip but we were totally unprepared for the Chateau de Falaise which is located in the Calvados region of Normandy in France. ‘Falaise’ translates as ‘cliff’ and the chateau is perched high on a rocky outcrop. William the Conqueror was born here but in an earlier castle in about 1028. William later came into possession of the castle and it descended through his heirs until the 13th century. After a few changes of ownership, the castle was deserted during the 17th century. It was declared a ‘monument historique’ in 1840. Some restoration work was done between 1870 and 1874. During World War II it sustained damage from bombardment but the three keeps were unscathed. It has since been extensively refurbished but with little attempt to recreate the original ‘look’ of the place. There is a lot of ironwork and cement. Paths and walkways are metal. Each visitor is given a tablet and, once in a room by moving the tablet around, you have a 3D image of how the place might have looked in William the Conqueror’s time. In addition, there is an audio-visual presentation in each room of the main characters of the time – William, his parents, Harold, John and others. So while it’s not quite a ‘real’ castle, it was still quite amazing and well worth visiting. As I can’t download photos at the moment, this is a monument to William the Conqueror which stands in front of the entrance to the chateau.