CAEN , capital and largest city of
Basse Normandie, is not a place where you'll want to spend much time:
in the months of fighting in 1944, it was devastated. Nonetheless, the
city that nine hundred years ago was the favoured residence of William
the Conqueror remains - in parts - impressive.
Its
central feature is a ring of ramparts that no longer have a castle to
protect, and, though there are the scattered spires and buttresses of
two abbeys and eight old churches, roads and roundabouts fill the wide
spaces where prewar houses stood. Approaches are along thunderous dual
carriageways through industrial suburbs now prospering once more
following an influx of high-tech newcomers.
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