The Jardin des Canadiens and the former Abbaye d’Ardenne

Parking is available in the car park behind the former Notre-Dame d’Ardenne Abbey and near the Jardin des Canadiens.

(S/E) Leave the car park and turn right into Rue d’Ardenne. A few metres further on, after the first wall, is the entrance to the Jardin des Canadiens. A few metres further on is the entrance to the IMEC; opening hours to the public are limited, so please check in advance. About 200 m from the car park, cross Chemin de Saint-Germain and turn right onto the cycle path. Walk past the abbey, then join the^GR® 223 variant opposite the abbey’s old entrance gate, walking past the crematorium and the memorial garden. Take the bridge over Caen’s northern ring road, walk past the sports grounds and continue to the junction; note the nearby water tower.

(1) Cross Rue d’Alsace with care, turn left and continue along this street using the pavement on the right (there is no pavement on the left). Cross Rue d’Authie carefully using the pedestrian crossing on the right, then turn left. Use the three pedestrian crossings in succession to cross the first road and then the two branches of Rue de Touraine. Then turn right and continue on the left-hand side of Rue de Touraine, walking alongside the shopping centre. After walking for about 250 m, use the pedestrian crossing and carefully cross Rue de Touraine to continue along its right-hand side, using the pavements of the car parks belonging to the large buildings on your right. Cross Rue du Chemin Vert very carefully using the pedestrian crossing on the right and continue along the right-hand side of Rue de Touraine until you reach the slip road to Caen’s northern ring road. Cross the street and take the grassy path running alongside the sports fields, then follow Caen’s northern ring road until you reach the main road; note the Vallée des Jardins exit sign and the Chemin Vert sports hall on the right as you go along the ring road.

(2) Turn left and follow Avenue de l’Amiral Mountbatten along the left-hand pavement. Cross the bridge over the northern Caen ring road, walk alongside the Parc Foral de la Colline aux oiseaux, leave the^GR® 223 just before the park entrance and continue to Rue des Mouettes.

(3) Turn left and follow this street on the left until you reach a left-hand bend. Cross Rue des Mouettes then turn right onto the path that curves around a retention basin and leads to the pedestrian crossing on Boulevard Maréchal Juin. Use the pedestrian crossing to cross Boulevard Maréchal Juin carefully, then turn left until you reach the junction.

(4) Turn right towards the Chemin Vert industrial estate, walk alongside the hotel zone on your right and follow Rue de Villons-les-Buissons for about 250 m until you reach a pedestrian crossing before a bus stop. Cross Rue de Villons-les-Buissons carefully, then turn right and continue along the left-hand pavement for about 250 m until you reach Rue du Bailli. Turn left into this street, cross the residential area by following the street on its left-hand side until you reach the end. Turn left and cross Rue du Connétable, then turn right into Rue du Puits. Cross it, turn left into Rue des Coursières, follow it to the pedestrian crossing just before Rue des Greniers, cross Rue des Coursières carefully and continue along the right-hand pavement until you reach Rue du Cloître.

(5) Turn right into Rue du Cloître, follow the street and cross the green space opposite to reach a second residential block. Note the abbey visible in the distance on the left. Leave the passageway at Place des Porphyres, turn left – without crossing the square – into Rue des Gracillaires and, at the end, near the crèche, continue right into Rue de l’Occitanie, still following the left-hand pavement. Cross Rue de Sologne and continue to the next junction.

(6) Cross Rue de Mesentea, turn left, follow the street, cross Rue de Sologne and continue until you reach Espace Ardenna. Cross the car park and head for the roundabout at the end of Rue d’Authie.

(7) Take great care when crossing Rue d’Authie using the pedestrian crossings, then follow the roundabout on the left until you reach Rue d’Ardenne. Stay on the left-hand side of the street and head towards the abbey. Cross Chemin de Saint-Germain, walk past the abbey on the right, then head to the car park and your parking space (S/E).

Ardenne Abbey
This is the third abbey in Caen. In 1121, a small Christian community settled in Ardenne, on a former Gallic place of worship. A church was consecrated in 1138. In 1144, this community was entrusted to the Premonstratensian canons, an order founded in 1121 by the German Norbert of the neighbouring Abbey of La Lucerne. When, in 1450, Charles VII laid siege to Caen, then occupied by the English, he set up camp at Ardenne Abbey, which led to the inclusion of the Fleur-de-lis in the abbey’s coat of arms. He left on 6 July 1450 to make his solemn entry into the city. During the Revolution, on 12 November 1789, the novices were driven out of the abbey. On 24 June 1791, the abbey church was closed because it was frequented by many people from Caen who refused to attend Masses celebrated by sworn priests. On 12 May 1791, the abbey was sold and subsequently used as a quarry. In the 19th century, some of the buildings were rebuilt and housed three businesses.

A place of resistance and a strategic site…
From April 1943, Jacques Vico, who lived with his family on the abbey farm, joined the Resistance at the age of 18 and gradually built up a weapons cache by collecting parcels dropped by British aircraft. On 16 December 1943, his father Roland, mayor of Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, who had been supplying false papers to Resistance fighters and those evading the STO, was arrested and deported to Mauthausen. Jacques transported all the weapons to safer locations in a single night. The next day, the Gestapo surrounded the abbey. On 7 June 1944, units of the^12th SS-Panzer Hitlerjugend Division took up positions in the abbey, which became the starting point for the German counter-attack in this sector assigned to the Canadian army. From the top of the south-west tower, an ideal observation post, an officer relayed the positions of the Allied attackers to the artillery. On 8 June, the Canadians finally entered Ardenne. The abbey was completely devastated; in 1947, the entire south-west corner of the façade collapsed overnight.

IMEC: a rediscovery of identity…
The reconstruction of the abbey church, which began in 1945, was completed in 1981: the Grange aux Dîmes was entirely rebuilt and the farm buildings gradually restored. The General Council acquired all the plots and buildings and established the IMEC and its cultural centre dedicated to books and writing, restoring the abbey’s identity focused on research and the promotion of its archives.