From the time of William the Conqueror to the present day, in the heart of reunited Normandy, Caen is now home to the seat of the regional council (Rouen remains the capital for the time being). A dynamic city where cultural sites and festivals abound, a lively student city on Thursday evenings, a gastronomic city with countless restaurants, a city of architecture where the Middle Ages and Reconstruction rub shoulders, a city of history that experienced the conquest of Normandy and the dark hours of bombing and occupation, Caen is surprising
If cultural visits are not lacking: two sumptuous abbeys among the largest in France, a castle - the largest in Northern Europe -, many churches, and museums including the famous Memorial, walks are particularly pleasant. Beautiful historic and commercial streets: Saint-Pierre Street, Cold Street, Caponière Street... majestic squares: Saint-Sauveur Square, Theatre Square... marina lined with restaurants and cafés, huge green spaces: Bird Hill, Botanical Garden, Prairie... Caen is even the starting point of a greenway leading to Normandy Switzerland... But here, plan a little more time!
Note that the new large library of the Caen conurbation, called "Alexis de Tocqueville", built opposite the Saint-Pierre basin on the port of Caen, will open its doors next January. The summer was used to move to the peninsula where the brand new neighbourhood is taking shape. The "Caen Presqu'île" urban project, developed on a former wasteland, covers 600 hectares. This new pole is an opportunity for development. It is also home to the School of Arts and Media; the Cargö, the stage for contemporary music; the Dome (space for the dissemination of scientific culture) and the new courthouse, inaugurated in June 2016
"A library is a guest room." There are many quotes concerning the book, including this one from Tahar Ben Jelloun. Marcel Proust would have gladly shared with him to greet the event: "Reading is a friendship" he liked to say. One can imagine, willingly, these timeless encounters. These are precisely the ones that only a library knows how to bring to life and restore, on paper and - new technologies oblige - also in digital version
The new Alexis de Tocqueville library in Caen la mer is not a simple reconstruction. "It is also a new intermunicipal facility, part of the 21st century landscape, whose role is to bring a new relationship to reading and culture to the conurbation and the whole of the region. Its vocation is to offer a varied range of services and innovants ", it is said in Caen la mer. "It is therefore no longer just a space where documents are preserved, exhibited and communicated, but a lively place for meetings and sharing around knowledge, culture and information. In a context of dematerialization and multiplication of information, it will also help to understand and analyze the countless sources of data
With a surface area of 12,800 m2, built on four levels, the building with its giant windows, open to the west and east, has a great deal of natural light and transparency. A work of the architectural agency OMA, created by Rem Koolhaas, the building was designed as an urban forum. In the shape of a cross of Saint Andrew, each arm of which is 22 metres wide, it has four thematic poles: the arts in the east, humanities in the south, literature in the west and science and technology in the north. "The main idea is to offer library users many different types of spaces so that every use is possible. This provides large areas for use up to a full day. All these spaces are also mobile and variable to adapt either to a particular animation or to the evolution of users' expectations and uses. The interior circulation of the public was placed in the centre to fluidify the relations between levels, through a large escalator and an elevator connecting the different floors.
In the same way, new tools and services such as the 150-seat auditorium; the 321 m2 exhibition space, part of which is reserved for associations; the press booth, which is functional and connected to all the online press; and the café-restaurant (with indoor and outdoor terraces) make it a real haven of leisure and knowledge where it is good to recharge one's batteries
The public at the centre of the project
Placed in the centre of the library, the public is the main actor. It is another of the library's prerogatives to offer a new, attractive and modern destination while at the same time encouraging new habits among the inhabitants of the entire agglomeration. Accessible to all, it takes into account the variety of expectations and uses and offers reading rooms, a "wall of curiosities" in which niches allow you to see old books or multimedia animations, group work rooms but also more intimate spaces for those who want to isolate themselves for leisure or study ... However, peripheral libraries are not left out: "The Alexis de Tocqueville library also plays a driving role in the network of community or municipal libraries, via the Public Reading Network, present throughout the territory", one reassures, in this sense, in Caen la mer.
Logically impregnated with new technologies, the new library would not be complete if it did not honour its primary vocation: to be the guarantor of the temple of memory. A place of preservation and transmission par excellence, it preserves four sets of specific collections that will delight paper lovers that we are: a precious collection of manuscripts (rare books, prints, plans, etc.); a Norman centre of encyclopaedic and structured collections on Caen and Normandy; a historical collection for young people (books and albums from 1950 to 1990) and the legal deposit for printers, a national mission in the region for which the Caen library has been delegated. And, besides, it's open on Sundays!
Smart info
When? Caen can be visited all year round, although the arrival of fine weather is more pleasant. The opening of the library is planned for the beginning of 2017.
Getting there. The best way to get to Caen is by train or car.
Where? On the harbour peninsula. Two entrances meet in a common hall: either through the new pedestrian area along the François-Mitterrand quay to the west, or through the park to the east.
Useful. All information on the site
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