the year 1584....while the Renaissance flourishes in Italy, it is still a dark, unhappy time in France....dreary decades of religious wars, the intrigues of Catherine de 'Medici, and the cruel, relentless persecution of the Huguenots. It is here in Rouen, not far from the Place du Vieux-Marché where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, the first verifiable record of our Vallé ancestors can be found. This area of France was first inhabited be the Véliocasses, a Galllic tribe, who were conquered by the Francs and then by Rollon the Viking. Recurring pockets of Plague and a great fire which comsumed most of the village of St. Saens in 1648 probably induced Charles Vallé's sons, Pierre and Jean, to migrate to Québec, New France (Canada). Much of the original research was done by Ida (Cox) Schaaf of St. Marys, Missouri using the vast Vatican archives housed at St. Louis University and the collections of the Missouri Historical Society. The background is the interior of Rouen's Cathedral.