On our second day at the castle, we heard the story of the place.
Interestingly the first “castle” here was a Viking fortress. As we are in Normandie, it is no surprise our people have been here. Yet being a traveler, it is always nice to be reminded we come from a culture of travelers. Could it be another gene? Right next to my anarchy gene and the personal freedom gene?
Can there be a “let’s get out there”-gene?
Vikings were obviously not all like in the Netflix series. Many were just explorers in a time where everyone was fighting everyone, to be fair. Vikings settling somewhere were not much more violent than everyone else while protecting what they had and who they were.
The Berserkers were different. They would hype themselves up on mushrooms and go crazy, but that is another story. Berserkers probably never build a fortress.
So here we are in a French castle that looks just like something from a fairy tale, complete with how Lous 14th was involved with the then owners and how a noblewoman from southern France had the place rebuilt because she was suffocating in the Northern climate (I totally get her).
We have been traveling full-time for almost five years now. The combination of the whole Covid craziness and our son's need for dental care in Barcelona has kept us in mainland Europe for most of the time. It has been fascinating to dig into the history of this part of the world, how it is all connected, and how the different cultures evolved to become what they were and are now. After we left, we became much more interested in the history of our own culture and have met traces of it close to everywhere.
And as the Vikings left Scandinavia to settle and travel all over, I sometimes feel I never really left my culture. I just built upon old traditions when I became nomadic.
Our friends in Catalunia always called us Los Vikingos. Maybe it is not all that wrong.
Love and light
Cecilie Conrad
# 108 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here
Love and light
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