Well, Normandy was fab, after Etretat and Honfleur (see earlier blog) we spent a few days in Bayeux, it has a beautiful cathedral, (inside and out) so must be a city even though the population is just 14k! Found great campsite with all the facilities just a 10 minute walk from all the main sites.
In addition, our new motorhome is living up to all our expectations so life is good!
When in Bayeux you obviously have to go and see the Bayeux Tapestry... we were so impressed with it, we went to see it twice! For those non-historians, it’s an embroidered cloth nearly 1000 years old and almost 70 metres long which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. History has it that William the Conqueror's half-brother ordered the tapestry to be made in honour of William's victory. Anyway whether you love history or not (we cover both perspectives) it’s well worth seeing including an excellent exhibition and film.
The Battle of Normandy 1944 exhibition is sobering, along with the Bayeux War Cemetery next door which is the largest Second World War cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers in France, with over 4,500 graves. Opposite, the Bayeux Memorial commemorates more than 1,800 casualties of the Commonwealth forces who died in Normandy and have no known grave. The Latin epitaph along the frieze of the memorial is reference to William the Conqueror and his 1066 invasion of England, translated into English it reads "We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror's native land." So we came a full circle back to the Bayeux Tapestry.... what an amazing place!
