🇫🇷 Road Trip Through Lower Normandy: Caen's Layered History 🏰🍂

🅿️ Parking "Hack" in Caen "Tossed €1 for 1-hour parking... got 3 hours free! 🤯 Turns out lunch breaks (12-2pm) = free parking – when shops close and locals mange et dors (eat & sleep). Merci, city planners! Finally cracked the code: Drive when paid, park when free." ⚔️ Normandy's Forgotten Past Before France was France, Normandy was a battleground of warlords: • Sandwiched between English invaders and French kings • Caen = "place of battles" in Old Norse – lived up to its name for 500+ years • William the Conqueror (local hero) made Normandy a powerhouse – his castle ruins still loom over the city "History isn’t just D-Day... it’s centuries of peasants crushed under royal egos." 🌄 View from the Ramparts Climbed the castle walls at dusk: • Autumn winds whispering through bullet-scarred stones • Normandy flag fluttering – a rebel yell against Parisian centralization • 20,000 civilians died in the 1944 Battle of Caen – "liberation" came at a price "Every 'glorious' border shift hides mothers wailing for sons who never came home." 🍽️ Fuel for Thought Ate tear-shaped crêpes (unplanned symbolism) at a cafe near the abbey. #FranceRoadTrip #NormandyUntold #CaenCastle #DarkTourism #HistoryHurts