Samedi in Bayeux

I'm extremely backed up with my posting, thanks to holidays and such. Before Christmas break, however, I had a couple of eventful weekends. I'm going to split these up into three separate posts, because otherwise there's just too much to record! I'll start off talking about Bayeux...

First off, I owe a great thanks to my friend Nicolas for having been so kind as to drive me and my friend Rebekka around upper Normandy for a full Saturday, when I'm sure there were many other things he probably would've liked to be doing, and certainly tourism in his own home town was at the bottom of his list. Nevertheless, we started in Bayeux, whose history dates back over a thousand years. Luckily, this town managed to escape the fate of many other Norman towns, and was not bombed during the war. There are many reasons to visit Bayeux, I discovered this weekend (an ancient cathedral; fantastic galettes at l'Insolite; great shopping...), but the main reason most people visit this town is to see the famous Tapisserie de Bayeux. Woven around 1070, at 230 feet long, this embroidered "tapestry" recounts the battles between the English and the Normans, and Guillaume le Conquérant's Norman conquest of England. It is truly impressive to see, as it seems to have held up quite well over the centuries. Centuries. Although it has about fifty panels, my favourite was the one where, after the long journey across the English channel in a viking ship, the horses are literally elated to see land, and go leaping, smiling, from the boats toward the land:

After the museum, we took a walk around Bayeux. The cathedral there was truly impressive; I must have taken a thousand pictures, but I'll just post a couple here:

However, what really struck me in Bayeux was a huge tree next to the cathedral.

Nico explained to us that this arbre de la liberté ("liberty tree") was planted after the Revolution, along with many others throughout France.

I was enchanted.

Strolling around the town, we really felt the history of Bayeux everywhere we went. Since many of the towns one visits in Normandy were destroyed during the war, it's especially rare and exciting to visit a place that has preserved its original buildings since medieval times. I'd really like to go back and see more of the town; but we had to move on, because there were other places we had to visit... namely, the D-Day beaches. To spend a little more time in Bayeux, see the album here:

Bayeux