Caen Travel Guide, France

Caen Travel guide- City of Culture

The city has a long tradition as shelter for art and artists. The first local literature dates back in the 11th century and belongs to Raoul de Caen. It mainly refers to crusades. Starting with the 16th century, the culture starts to bloom and many painters, writers and also some scientists had their home in the city. The latest artists draw strip cartoons, which is a combination of painting and story telling. They gather in their festival named Festivale de bande desinee bulles en folie (crazy bubbles). Caen has many theatres (Pappillon Noir, Centre National Dramatique de Normandie, Actea etc). It is also a center for book publishing, including university press. The city awards each year a price for works of fiction with the action going on in Caen. The local library is not only for Caen inhabitants, but it benefits of an original concept- the bibliobus, a sort of mobile library of the residents of the entire region.

For people enjoying modern art, try Le Jardin de la Luna Rosa, a park of sculptures or the Circuit of crafts and art galleries to see artists at work, making sculptures, musical instruments, clothes, paintings. Even the ground contributes to art, as the Caen limestone is famous for building architectural masterpieces in England or locally as in the case of the two abbeys: St. Etienne for men and Holy Trinity for women built by William the Conqueror and his wife.

Caen Travel guide - Nowadays Life

Caen is situated close to Deauville and Le Havre, on the banks of river Orne, but it also benefited of the construction of an artificial canal in the 19th century. This canal allows the ships to float to the city from the English Channel through the little sea harbor of Ouistreham. Thus, the city became an important ferry station, operating between Caen and Portsmouth, UK. It is also an important railway junction and it has three motorways to link it to the rest of France. This entire infrastructure enables the city to export its steel and agriculture products and it is a gateway for the import of coke. Inside the city, you can use the net of public transportation, named Twisto, consisting of 25 bus lines and two for an ingenious tram, running on a line, but also having tires. Caen has one of the oldest universities in France (as a studying foundation, not buildings), initiated by King of England Henry VI in 1432. It also has an important national college for engineers. This is the way it adds 30000 more inhabitants during the school year, who transform the city into a cosmopolite area. Some famous brands mentioned in most Caen travel guides Caen are Moulinex, Valeo, Oberthur, France Telecom.

Caen Travel guide - Health Care

Caen is a regional university hospital center, with many medicine domains available. Still, the leading branches are oncology, with chemotherapy and prophylaxis practiced in a Regional center for fighting cancer and psychiatry, served by two institutions- Centre Esquirol and a specialised hospital center named Bon Saveur. Medical research is carried on in center of national importance: le Grand accélérateur national d'ions lourds (GANIL) and Centre d'imagerie cérébrale et de recherche en neurosciences (CYCERON). A way of mantaining good health is through sport, and Caen is the place to practice ice or roller skating hockey, horse or bicycle riding, football and rugby.