On todays travels in France we visited the beautiful city of Bayeux. Its quite a small city, in Normandy, France. Its famed for being the home of the Bayeux Tapestry.
It has some really nice architecture in the centre of the town, covering a number of different periods.
It has a lot of lovely old buildings like the one above. In the UK, these type of buildings are from the tudor period dating from around the 15th century. There was quite a few of these around Bayeux - quite stunning to see.
There was also other shops and buildings that had a sort of early to mid 19th century style (from around World War 2). It really did add to the character of the town centre when you mixed the two.
Our main reason for travelling here today was to visit the Bayeux Tapestry, which is housed in a special building in the town centre.
Its a 70m long embroidery dating from the 11th century, and its quite incredible. Its housed in a special dark room, and you are not allowed to take pictures of it - in case the light damages it further. The above pic was from one of the replica pieces in the museum shop.
The tapestry tells the story of how William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), sailed across the English Channel to defeat the English Saxon King Harold to take the throne of England, and change the history of the British Isles. Its really impressive and is a one-off artifact that is now close to 1000 years old.
Our daughter is really into her history, and really wanted to visit it. Its quite an incredible thing to see, and I think its about the 3rd or 4th time I've made the visit personally.
These lovely hydrangeas were outside the museum. We've been seeing them all over Normandy. We have them back in the UK, but they are very popular here - just everywhere. They are lovely flowers and really do brighten the place up.
Another great place to visit in Bayeux is the Cathedral. Its quite stunning, and I'll cover it in another post.
We had a great day wandering around the streets and just taking in the atmosphere. We also stopped at a cafe to take in some of those fantastic French cakes - they have awesome bakeries all over France, and the cakes are quite incredible !
The building above was just across the road from the cathedral. The woodwork on it was fantastic.
The wooden carvings on the beams were quite incredible !
We also spotted this tiny dedication to June 1944 up one of the side streets. June 1944 is referring to the D-Day landings that happened across Normandy during World War 2, which was a major turning point in the war. Unfortunately in meant many casualties on both sides and also in the local population. Its the smallest dedication I've seen to June 1944, but as fitting as all the others.
There was lots of beautiful buildings and sights to see all over the city centre.
In the pic above it even looks like Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters was visiting Bayeux today - but I'm fairly sure it wasnt him !!!
It really was a great day out, and our daughter really loved seeing the tapestry (as did we).
Its such a quaint town centre that it is very much worth the visit if you are ever in the area !