The small
town of Falaise was the site of two of the key events of
the second millenium for the history of Britain, one near
the beginning and the other near the end.
In 1027
Robert the Magnificent, son of the Duke of Normandy, while
returning to Falaise Castle from hunting, spotted the
beautiful Arlette washing clothes in the stream with her
skirts drawn high. The fruit of his passion was to be
called Guilleheaume and grew up to become one of the
intellectual and military giants of the millenium. We know
him as "William the Conquerer". On August 19th 1944 the
Allies completed a pincer movement and trapped the German
Army in a large pocket between Falaise and Argentan.
Although some escaped, the Battle of Normandy was over
leaving the enemy with 600,000 fewer soldiers and all
their guns and tanks destroyed or captured.
Falaise's setting in the
Ante Valley, a ravine dominated by scattered rock spurs,
is dominated by the huge mediaeval fortress perhaps still
haunted by the memory of Arlette and her son William.
Nowadays the ghosts of the Third Reich linger there
also.
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