Sun Sept. 21. Calais.

 With my room booked for two nights, I had only one worry. LateSaturday I discovered what I should have remembered - French electric outlets are different from English ones. So where to get a converter on Sunday when all the shops are closed? Luckily the newspaper kiosk at the train station sold them.  Now all I have to do is figure out how to phone in France with an English SIM card. Obviously, I haven’t mastered the technological aspects of travel.

A bit of history. When William the Conqueror arrived in England in 1066, he ruled over his lands in France as well as those of England, and this type of arrangement continued for 300 years, with a gradual loss of possessions on the continent. In 1337, for various reasons, King Edward III of England invaded south-western France, launching what we know as the 100 years war (it lasted, on and off, for 116 years).  Over the first nine years, the English had many victories, often under the leadership of the Black Prince, Edward III’s son (the one buried in Canterbury Cathedral). By 1346 the English reached Calais in the north-west.  Calais was a prize worth fighting for, because of the short 21 miles separating it from the English port of Dover. Calais was extremely well fortified, so the English settled in for a siege. A bit less than a year later, driven by starvation, the city surrendered, and remained in English hands for the next 200 years. During this time (and apparently still today) it remained the main port for English trade with the continent.

The French lost Calais because their King was indecisive, not a good military leader, and chronically short of money.  Not something the French are very proud of.. 

There is a famous statue by Rodin in the centre of Calais that tells a story that seeks to redeem the French sense of honour. It was the custom in the Medieval period that the leaders of a city would go and offer humble capitulation and swear new oaths of obedience to the victorious army. The story here in Calais (as told by the medieval chronicler Froissart) is that six of the wealthiest burghers agreed to surrender themselves to Edward III in return for him sparing the lives of the rest of the inhabitants.  They left thinking they were going to their death, but Edward’s French wife, Queen Philippa, pleaded successfully for their lives.  (Modern historians have discovered documents proving financial transactions between at least one of these burghers and the English crown, raising some doubts over the full reliability of the medieval version…)

Anyway, in 1884 the mayor of Calais decided a statue to encourage civic pride was needed and commissioned the relatively unknown artist Rodin to do one honouring those six medieval burghers. Rodin worked for over ten years on the project, now considered one of his masterpieces.  He hesitated greatly on whether to put the sculpture high up on a platform base, as was the practice, but finally opted for the men to be ‘one of us’, on our level.  Calais remains immensely proud of this bronze sculpture - it is located in front of the city hall and is surrounded by beautiful flower beds.  At the art gallery I visited later, there was a rather strange dance/music performance culminating in a “mise en scène” of a female burghess(?) becoming part of the sculpture.

Flowers around the statue.

And in these flowerbeds, this reminded me of Tom O’Flanagan’s creations in the Sault.

I then visited the Lace museum.  In the 16th century, fashion changed and everyone who could afford it, men and women, started wearing lace collars or lace sleeves.  In Calais and all up and down the coastal areas of western Europe women were making bobbin lace. I’ve tried a very simple pattern - it is a real art!

 By the end of the 18th century, lace was being made by machines, and Calais became the most important European centre for industrial lace making. Here is a 19th century full -length lace shawl.

The lace museum tracks all of this (lace is still being made in Calais) and also features fashion exhibits.  This is a dress by Yiqing Yin that I found quite enticing!

I did one more thing in Calais today, but I’ll talk about it in tomorrow’s blog.