Falaise is the name of several communes in France:
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Falaise is a town (population 9,000) on the Ante River in the French region of Basse-Normandie, famous as the birthplace of William the Conquerer and as the scene of the fierce fighting of August 1944 associated with the Allied "breakout" from the "Falaise pocket" that built up after the D-Day landings, to drive towards Paris during the Western campaign against Nazi occupation.
In August 1944 two German armies were encircled and destroyed by the British 2nd Army in their attempt to breakout of the "Falaise pocket" (also known as the "Falaise gap"). Some 10,000 German troops were killed and 50,000 taken prisoner. Two-thirds of Falaise was destroyed by Allied bombing before the town was eventually taken by Canadian and Polish troops. Falaise was largely restored after the war.
From Paris, Falaise is a 262 km (2 hr 40 mins) drive west of the French capital (A13 motorway, then south from Caen.
Located in the southern reaches of Normandy, a visit to Falaise represents a half-day excursion from the other major towns of Normandy:
Having visited Falaise, excursions to other centres important in the life of William the Conquerer might be appropriate.... Caen and Bayeux lie less than an hour's drive to the north of the city.
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FALAISE, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados, on the right bank of the Ante, 19 m. S. by E. of Caen by road. Pop. (1906) 6215. The principal object of interest is the castle, now partly in ruins, but formerly the seat of the dukes of Normandy and the birthplace of William the Conqueror. It is situated on a lofty crag overlooking the town, and consists of a square mass defended by towers and flanked by a small donjon and a lofty tower added by the English in the 15th century; the rest of the castle dates chiefly from the 12th century. Near the castle, in the Place de la Trinite, is an equestrian statue in bronze of William the Conqueror, to whom the town owed its prosperity. The churches of La Trinite and St Gervais combine the Gothic and Renaissance styles of architecture, and St Gervais also includes Romanesque workmanship. A street passes by way of a tunnel beneath the choir of La Trinite. Falaise has populous suburbs, one of which, Guibray, is celebrated for its annual fair for horses, cattle and wool, which has been held in August since the 11th century. The town is the seat of a subprefecture and has tribunals of first instance and commerce, a chamber of arts and manufacture, a board of trade-arbitrators and a communal college. Tanning and important manufactures of hosiery are carried on.
From 1417, when after a siege of forty-seven days it succumbed to Henry V., king of England, till 1450, when it was retaken by the French, Falaise was in the hands of the English.
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