The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery depicting the events surrounding the battle of Hastings in 1066 where William the Conqueror invaded England (the Normandy invasion in reverse!), defeated the the English King Harold to become the King of England. The tapestry is pretty amazing in several aspects. First, its sheer size - it's about a meter high and an incredible 70 meters long. That's a lot of embroidery! It is composed of scenes depicting the events before, during and after the battle. There are fifty some scenes, each with a lot of detail to depict the story. Finally, the quality of the stitchery over this size is very impressive. Apparently, it was done ten years or so after William's victory which makes it just short of a thousand years old. It had been shown in its early years in the Bayeux cathedral but in recent times it is in it's own museum about a block away from the cathedral. Here it has been preserved well and it is displayed in controlled conditions (no flash photography). It is well done and it really does have a lot of historical information in the various scenes. This is really made apparent as you are guided from scene to scene with an audio phone from which an excellent description is given. Without this you would have to do a lot of studying to figure out some of the detail. The tour really gives a nice flow to the whole story. In a separate room there is a theater with a good movie on the history and some of the detail on the tapestry. One of the scenes that was particularly interesting to me was one showing a comet at the time of the battle (later determined to be Hallely's comet).
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| Bayeux Tapestry scene depicting a comet (in the top running banner stripe, middle of the scene) |
The Bayeux cathedral is another excellent example of the architecture of these grand structures. The exterior is not as delicate or ornate as Paris or Rouen, but beautiful in its own right. The interior is magnificent - grand columns, delicate arches and beautiful stained glass. It is a nice combination of Romanesque and Gothic styles. Interestingly, this site suffered no damage during WW II so it is truly in its original state. Bayeux was well favored by the Dukes of Normandy and William the Conqueror presided over the consecration of its cathedral. Bayeux is a small town and the cathedral spires are visible everywhere in the town - this makes it almost impossible to get lost there! Another interesting bit of history at the cathedral is a portion of a preserved roman wall on the site. So in one view you get to see structures 2000 and 1000 years old. Counting by millennia!
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| Bayeux Cathedral with Roman wall in foreground |
The Battle of Normandy Museum was a nice recapping of the history of the invasion and subsequent struggle to break out of the Norman hedgerows. By the way we did see many examples of these hedgerows and sunken roads. They are formidable barriers and again, for the Germans, perfect defensive structures. The Museum had films and good displays of vintage military equipment - personal items, small and large weapons, communications, clothing and more. It really makes those times seem almost antique - there has been a lot of change in 70 years.
After dinner we decided to do a Bayeux finale with a stroll along the Aure river which runs through the center of town - actually right outside of our hotel. Being spring, flowers were in full bloom and the river side (really a stream) setting made for a wonderful memory and cap to a great visit to Normandy.
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| Walking along the river Aure in Bayeux |
However, we weren't quite finished. Our return to Paris afforded us one last fling. Our train got us in to Paris at early afternoon and we were in no hurry to go out to our hotel by the airport. So we took a cab to the Latin Quarter and a nice Parisienne bistro for one last delicious meal. A great ending of a great vacation!
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