15 – Along the Ramparts

To the Liberty Tower

Walking along the ramparts, with its aged lichen encrusted balustrades, you approach the corbelled stonework of the Liberty Tower. Built as part of the fortifications during the Hundred Years War this part of the lower ramparts of the Mont date from around the early fifteenth century.

Apocryphally the Hundred Years War actually lasted a hundred and sixteen years from 1337 to 1453 – one of those frequently encountered trivia questions designed to trip up the unwary (like I). The war was in fact a series of conflicts between the English and the French and was punctuated by brief periods of peace. It was fought over entitlement to the French throne following the extinction of the Capetian line of French monarchs, between the houses of Valois (France) and Plantagenet (English). The Plantaganet dynasty of course descended from the lineage of William the Conqueror, so claiming rights to both French and English thrones. Strangely one common thread between English and French (who to this day do not agree on much) is the French name for the period being the “Guerre de Cent Ans”, for once a direct translation of the English term. The final victory was to the French, but at enormous cost, and resulted in great enrichment of England. A winning of the war but a losing of the battle I guess.

A telescope on the tower provides the visitor a north easterly view across the sands of the bay (the tide being out) providing views of the town of Avranches – a town with close ties to the Mont as we shall shortly hear.

And that’s as far north into Basse-Normandie as I would see.