During our stay in Normandy, we spent some time in the city of Bayeux before our D-Day tour with Normandy Panorama. We had a few hours to walk around and see some things before the van disembarked midday.
This certainly doesn’t capture Bayeux in all its glory, but we did get some pictures and managed to see some sights while we were on foot patrol in the drizzle and temperatures that I would not, personally, associate with summer.
Fortunately, the rain only held onto our happiness for the first part of the day, greeting us with sunshine upon our return from the aforementioned tour.
I thought Bayeux felt rather large for a small town, and I was surprised to find out that it’s home to less than 15,000 people.
It surely didn’t feel so small when we were there; but it’s one of the larger commercial hubs in the region, and those tend to feel larger since the surrounding towns rely on a city like this for a lot of their daily needs.
Bayeux has been around since the first century BC, and while we didn’t see any ancient ruins on our walkabout, we did get to see some classic architecture from later centuries.
The cathedral – Notre-Dame de Bayeux – was consecrated nearly 1,000 years ago, with a lot of the building done much later in the 15th century.
It wasn’t actually completed until the 1800s, but someone like me wouldn’t know that from looking at it.
It’s an impressive sight nonetheless, and feels like a proper church for the old quarter that surrounds it.
We also headed over to see the Bayeux Tapestry, which was displayed in the cathedral but currently resides in its own museum not too far away. The 70-meter-long (230 feet) woven tapestry shows the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.
While my parents took the audio tour, Ang and I decided to be immature children and look at it with no guidance at all. This, of course, led to all sorts of interesting, made-up stories about what was going on in the historic imagery spread before us.
No photos were allowed, but I broke that rule, too. Who’s a rebel? This guy.
We obviously didn’t get a proper, informed visit of Bayeux while we were there, mostly due to our drive from Grandcamp-Maisy and the imminent departure of our D-Day tour bus.
We still enjoyed our stroll and the sights we did manage to see. If we were to return to Normandy in the future, I think it’d be worth spending more time here to see what the town has to offer.
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Have you ever been to Bayeux or seen any of these sights? If so, what’d you think? If not, what say ye? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Thought the day started out rather dreary, it didn’t lesson the fun of a new town. What a great (though illegal) picture of the Bayeaux Tapestry! I’m glad we took the audio tour as we wouldn’t have had a clue about the story portrayed there, and it didn’t cost any more than your ticket. The tapestry is one of those ‘if you’re there, you should see this amazing work of art that depicts an important part the area’s history’ things. Would I go out of my way to go see it? Probably not, but I’m glad we did see it.
“Illegal” is a bit rich, don’t you think? 🙂 You told us about the story, and I read about it, so good enough. We enjoyed our made up fantasy about what happened there haha. Thanks for reading!
I loved getting to see the Bayeux Tapestry up close and personal! The audioguide was a lot of fun, helping to explain the Latin embroideries and all the wild action going on—I remember I got a kick out of it when the voiceover mentioned something about how the bishop going into war was forbidden to kill, but he still could clobber 😛
I hope you guys peeked inside the cathedral; originally the tapestry would have hung all the way around the entire nave for local residents to see!
It was neat to see, and the story behind it is obviously interesting, but I wasn’t blown away by it or anything. Different strokes, I guess! Thanks for stopping by, Trevor!