Château Guillaume-le-Conquérant et fontaine d'Arlette

Falaise

It is at the castle of Falaise that the Norman epic begins. Around 1027–1028, in the early fortress raised on this spur overlooking the Val d'Ante, William was born, the future conqueror of England. Legend tells that his father, Duke Robert the Magnificent, spied from the ramparts the beautiful Arlette, daughter of a furrier, washing her linen at the fountain in the Val d'Ante; having become his companion, the young woman is said to have seen in a dream an immense tree rising from her body and climbing towards the sky, its shadow covering the whole of Normandy — a portent of her son's prodigious destiny. Arlette's fountain, adorned with a fresco restored in the 1950s, can still be seen at the foot of the castle. The present fortress preserves the great keep begun in 1123 by Henry I Beauclerc, William's son and King of England, as well as the cylindrical tower commissioned around 1207 by Philip Augustus after his conquest of Normandy, later called the Talbot Tower. Besieged several times during the Hundred Years' War — soldiers' graffiti still mark its walls — the restored castle became a historic monument in the 19th century and today houses a museum devoted to the dukes of Normandy.

Getting there : Centre of Falaise, place Guillaume-le-Conquérant; museum trail open every day 10am–6pm (approx. €8.50); Arlette's fountain at the foot of the castle, in the Val d'Ante, on the ramparts walk

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound