Another Day Another Castle

We packed up this morning and said goodbye to our lovely gite. A last few dozen pains au chocolat, half an hour of cleaning and tidying and we were off.
We headed to Domfront for lunch, stopping en route in a little town to send the postcards the Little Misses have written. It made me laugh to use such typical school French. First of all I went into bakery and asked the man where the post office was then I followed his directions, got to the post office and asked the lady for stamps. It was like GCSE French all over again!
We took some very scenic back roads to Domfront. I love the days we've been moving from place to place. It's fab setting off into the unknown!
Domfront is beautiful - a medieval town on top of a hill. It was like walking onto a film set!
We had a look round the amazing church - built out of concrete in 1926. Doesn't sound special but it really was. 
Then we had a scrummy lunch at the lovely Le Bistro St Julien (the orange building to the left in the extra photo). It took ages to get a table but it was worth the wait. And we got to enjoy the sun, a show from the Little Misses and the beautiful piped music in the square while we waited.
From there it was to Falaise and William the Conquerer's castle.
Mr K stopped right in front of the huge storybook castle - complete with giant statue of William the Conquerer, a drawbridge and a huge wooden gate -  and then carried on driving because he hadn't noticed it!! Ha ha, much teasing followed!
The castle was amazing. Like Richard the Lionheart's castle the other day the grounds and other bits of the castle were all free and you could just wander around. You had to buy a ticket to get into the keep which has recently been refurbished.
It was €20 for a family ticket and we almost didn't bother. 
I'm so glad we did!!!
The keep has been restored brilliantly. All the new bits are obviously new - lots of steel and concrete and subtle lighting. There are lots of projections on the walls showing Guillaume explaining things and the best bit - what every single castle should have! - were the iPads  that you could use in all the rooms which used augmented reality to show the room as it would have looked in the 12th Century. Complete with the sound of the flickering fires! Just amazing!!
Empty stone walled rooms became highly decorated, full of fabrics and furniture and tiles and colour. There were rushes on the floor of the guard room, braziers throwing out sparks in the throne room, a bath tub in front of the fire in the bedroom, barrels in the cellar.
The Little Misses were astounded and could hardly contain their excitement to get to the next room to see what was there!
We went right up to the top of the tower and were treated to a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.
Another highlight was the display of siege weaponry - the catapults, trebuchets, the mangonel and the gantry. The iPads worked here too and when you scanned the model they showed the contraptions at work. Some of them threw things two hundred metres!!
There was a brilliant display and video about the Conquest explaining the build up, the preparations, the journey over the Channel, the Battle of Hastings and William's Coronation.
I can honestly say it's the best castle I've ever been to!! Definitely worth €20 if you're ever in the area!
Actually it was only €16. I used my GSCE French again and lied about Miss E's age!!
We finally left after 7pm and headed for Houlgate on the coast for our last few days. In a safari tent!