Bayeux Part 1

Last night was Mother’s Day in France, so we went to a restaurant next door called La Taverne. The meal was superb, Desiree had the Mother’s Day Special: “Pavé de cabilliaud en croute d’herbes,millelfeuille d’aubergine au panais et sa duxelles de champignons accompagné de sa chips de lard”, or “cod fillet in a herb crust, eggplant and parsnip millefeuille and mushroom duxelles served with bacon chips”. She seemed pleased with it! I had the largest lamb shank I have ever seen, apparently cooked 10 hours, but that too was fantastic: very tender and easy to eat. We accompanied this wonderful food with an excellent chablis. For dessert Des had a “La Normande” ice cream sundae, and I had profiteroles.

We can’t eat like this all the time, but Mother’s Day was a great excuse. It also explained why we saw so many people yesterday morning carrying large bouquets of flowers!

This morning we took a 15 minute train ride to Bayeux, the home (surprise, surprise) of the Bayeux Tapestry. This unique record of the events of Duke William of Normandy’s defeat of King Harold of England is a 70-metre long drama crammed with lively detail. The climax at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066 plays out like an action movie. William is now William the Conquerer, King of England. The rest is history.! We went straight to the Tapestry Museum, hoping to avoid the crowds, and it worked - there were a few people there with us, but it wasn’t the crush I feared. You pay 16 Euros each for three museums in Bayeux, the Tapestry Museum, a Museum of Art & History, and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy. More on the latter two in Part 2 tomorrow.

We were each given an excellent audio guide to the nearly 70m long tapestry, which stepped us through each of 60 stations along the tapestry, comments on both the action and the artistry displayed in it. Not surprisingly, no photos were allowed. The result was a wonderful experience that Des and I will always remember. It’s amazing to think not only that every stitch was done by hand, and someone or some people were able to plan and visualise the incredible imagery in the tapestry. And the colours, all natural dyes, don’t appear to have faded, even though the tapestry is nearly 1,000 years old!

We spent some time in the associated museum, looking at lots of things related in some way to the tapestry: a replica boat, chain mail (real from the time), and models of people who lived at the time. There was some interesting history of the tapestry - it very nearly didn’t survive the French Revolution: it was used in 1792 to cover a wagonload of weapons being taken to Paris, and in 1794 it was very nearly cut up to use in a street parade! In the nineteenth century the Tapestry was wrapped around a drum, and on opening, fed onto another drum. The caused some damage, especially to the ends of the tapestry, which are now ragged.

We found a charming spot for lunch, La Moulin de la Galette, a café attached to an old watermill. We each had a galette, a buckwheat pancake which comes with filling of your choice. Lovely! I followed with a pistachio crépe (Des helped me!) and a terrific espresso.

Tomorrow is a rest day for us (Phew!!) so we thought we would leave the rest of our visit to Bayeux till then.Leia mais