Lille, on the border with Belgium, is the largest city in France north of Paris. It is in the French part of the Flanders region, which includes northern Belgium and which traditionally spoke Dutch until separating from the Netherlands in order to remain Catholic. Lille was an important city during the Industrial Revolution, known for the manufacture of textiles, and could be thought of as France's version of Birmingham.
This is the old part of Lille, the area around it's cathedral. The first two images, of the cathedral and main square, are from Google Earth.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.
Here is more of the central area of Lille.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.6277884,3.0618654,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srCE3z0vmc4zXX2LaQ9KlhQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Euralille is the modern section of Lille.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.6384641,3.0738854,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHxKjLU0vkkjz-ctpjgauWA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Calais is France's link with Britain and the French end of the Chunnel, the tunnel under the English Channel, is nearby. The first image, from Google Earth, is of the famous red roofs of Calais.
This is the Cite Europe Mall near the French end of the Eurotunnel. I once went on a shopping trip and looked around this mall. It was very much like the Galleria, in Buffalo, except that everything was in French.
This is a photo that I took of the mall in 1995.
The city of Reims is immediately known for one thing, and that is it's cathedral. The best-known cathedral in France is Notre Dame, in Paris, but Reims actually has the coronation cathedral where most French kings were crowned. This cathedral closely resembles Notre Dame in Paris and, just as that cathedral was heavily damaged in the 2019 fire, Notre Dame of Reims was heavily damaged during the First World War but was restored. The first two images are from Google Earth.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2539421,4.0340786,3a,75y,102.64h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMXPU2QiVDM2PdkXq8Hem8oR3hm1VaTv0KxPxSX!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMXPU2QiVDM2PdkXq8Hem8oR3hm1VaTv0KxPxSX%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya233.04465-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880
Some cities have magnificent cathedrals. But how often do you see a city with two such cathedrals? Reims also has the Basilica St. Remi, from the 11th Century. The first image is from Google Earth.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2431336,4.0422251,3a,75y,272.3h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM8PzJofFU7NwCjEsolq2zQ0d26hhVD2Yd1NZ_y!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM8PzJofFU7NwCjEsolq2zQ0d26hhVD2Yd1NZ_y%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya221.88652-ro-0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880
The Eurostar train, which goes through the Chunnel between London and Paris, passes through the city of Amiens. This early medieval city is especially known for it's massive cathedral. This image is from Google Earth.
One thing that is interesting looking at Amiens is the number of buildings that are made of brick. French architecture usually doesn't use brick that much. Have you ever noticed how bricks are related to glaciation during the ice ages? Bricks are made of clay, which is decomposed rock that is deposited by moving glaciers in the ice ages. Since bricks are bulky, and difficult to transport, it makes sense that bricks are found mostly in areas where glaciation occurred.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8949696,2.3008006,3a,75y,289.77h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM0B4p31J9Qewf5M-QylBEfOwh1zX2QyU01BVxt!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM0B4p31J9Qewf5M-QylBEfOwh1zX2QyU01BVxt%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya189.15417-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352
Rouen is a site of an ancient settlement that became a great city of the Middle Ages. The north coast of France was vulnerable to raids by Vikings. The French king ceded some land on which Vikings could settle, in return for leaving the rest of the country alone and protecting it from further Viking raids.
These Vikings that settled in France became known as Normans, and their land in France as Normandy. They left the rest of France alone but eventually crossed over to England. This is why so many English words today are of French form or origin.
But the land that was ultimately most affected by the Normans was Ireland. The Irish people of today are split between the "original" Irish people, with names typically ending in -ey, and the "Norman Irish" people that are generally recognized by their surnames. We saw this in the visit to Ireland on this blog, "The Land Of St. Patrick", March 2023.
Certainly one of the most famous and valuable pieces of cloth in the world is the Bayeux Tapestry. This is a very long, 230 feet or over 70 meters, embroidery that tells the story of the Norman Invasion of England in 1066.
Whatever happened to the Normans? Remember that it may seem better to be a conqueror than the conquered, but that is not necessarily true over the long term. What happens is that the conquerors often end up simply disappearing into the people that they have conquered. This is especially true when a warlike smaller nation manages to conquer larger nations. The Hyksos were a people of ancient times that even ruled Egypt, but they then seem to have vanished. I see the Normans as being somewhat of the Hyksos of the Middle Ages.
The Normans that crossed to England ended up being part of the mix. But this entangled England and France and a later English king claimed hereditary right to the French throne. This resulted in the beginning of the Hundred Years War. The Burgundy region was also opposed to the French monarchy.
A devoutly religious French teenage peasant girl would emerge as a leader and become known to history as Joan of Arc. She was captured by the Burgundians and Rouen is probably best-known today as the site of her martyrdom.
As a native of England, I believe that the execution of Joan of Arc was not only unjust and barbaric but was a tactical mistake in that all it accomplished was to create a martyr. Joan of Arc is venerated today not only by the Catholic Church by also by England's Anglican Church. This may have been why Martin Luther was condemned to death but the execution was never carried out. The Catholics may have reasoned that killing him was not going to stop the Protestant movement but would only give it another martyr to rally around.
Furthermore, Joan of Arc has probably had a much greater effect on history than is generally credited.
When the Reformation came, in the century after Joan of Arc, whether a country would go with the Protestants or remain Catholic often came down to the personalities of reformers vs. saints. Northern Europe generally went Protestant with two exceptions, that of Ireland and France. But these two countries had very prominent saints. Ireland had St. Patrick and France had Joan of Arc. John Calvin, the most prominent leader of the second generation of the Reformation, was French but Joan of Arc appears to have won out and France remained Catholic.
However France was a close battle between Protestants and Catholics, as we saw in the posting on this blog "Christmas In Paris" December 2015. The anti-Catholic sentiment, although now in secular form and also against the monarchy, came back with a vengeance two hundred years later. It was known as the French Revolution.
It was the French Revolution that opened the modern political era in the world. it is difficult to imagine what the world would be like today without the revolution. But if the Protestants had emerged victorious in France, which they well might have without the presence of the spirit of Joan of Arc, there would have been no hierarchical and authoritative Catholic Church to rally against and this utterly world-changing revolution may not have happened.
Anyway, here is the absolutely charming city of Rouen. The first two images are from Google Street View.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.4406027,1.0957185,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5XA1Qws94VRFJPHTTDtiMw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Cherbourg is another city of ancient origin, in Normandy, that is an important port and France's link, by ship, to Britain and Ireland.
https://www.google.com/maps/@49.6402484,-1.6239214,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSG6c6yulIwYy3di1Jd65YA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
On a tidal island, meaning that it is an island only at high tide, off the coast of Normandy lies the world-famous Mont St. Michel. Founded in medieval times as an abbey, it has also served as a fortress and a prison. The first two images are from Google Earth.
https://www.google.com/maps/@48.6359675,-1.5106491,2a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNw4fAUDLeDeaSuexqi01EQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Mont St. Michel is an example of an old form of European architecture known as Romanesque. In the Romanesque style of building, the walls have to be massive in order to support the weight of the roof, and this means that windows have to be small.
But then the idea arose of building supports outside the walls of the cathedral, or other structure, that would support the bulk of the weight of the roof. These outside supports are known as buttresses. This meant that the walls did not have to be so massive and this made possible large and spectacular stained glass windows. This style of architecture is known as Gothic and the first example might be Basilica St. Denis, in Paris.
The Renaissance brought the rediscovery of the intricate building techniques that had been known in ancient times, but had been forgotten. This brought about a new predominant architectural style for cathedrals and other large structures. The new style was known as Baroque, and featured great domes such as those at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's in London. In the posting on this blog, "St. Petersburg And The Romanovs", we could see that the city has the magnificent domes of Baroque cathedrals but lacks Gothic cathedrals. That is because St. Petersburg was built as a new city but not until the Gothic era had passed.
Finally, Rennes is the capital of the far-western French region of Brittany. The French language is a Romance language but with a strong Celtic influence. Brittany has it's own Celtic language, known as Breton.
Breton is close enough to Welsh, which we saw in our visit on this blog to "South Wales", that there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility. There used to be another Celtic language in Cornwall, Cornish. The British government, in an effort to get everyone to speak English, managed to suppress the language but today it is being revived. The former British Government campaign against the Welsh language was less successful, and the government of today actively supports the language. Breton speakers in France have suffered similar attempts to curtail their language but today the language is being actively revived.
The first two images of Rennes, which includes the cathedral and the old part of the city, are from Google Earth.
https://www.google.com/maps/@48.1150779,-1.6798324,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBhkcMoi_wuINbTws0YZySQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY AND MOVIES
Here is something to ponder that I have wondered about. The Bayeux Tapestry is a long scrolled embroidery with numerous successive scenes that tells the story of the Norman Invasion of England in 1066.
The first movies that were viewable by more than one person at a time was accomplished in France, by the Lumiere brothers. With the Bayeux Tapestry so much a part of the national consciousness, and being essentially the medieval version of a movie, the question is whether we would have movies, on film, as we do today if not for the Bayeux Tapestry.
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