Housed in an impressive eighteenth-century seminary on rue de Nesmond, the Bayeux Tapestry
- also known to the French as the Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde - is
a seventy-metre strip of linen that recounts the story of the Norman
conquest of England (daily: mid-March to April & Sept to mid-Oct
9am-6.30pm; May-Aug 9am-7pm; mid-Oct to mid-March 9.30am-12.30pm &
2-6pm; last admission 45min before closing; €6.10). Although created
over nine centuries ago, the brilliance of its coloured wools has
barely faded, and the tale is enlivened throughout with scenes of
medieval life, popular fables and mythical beasts. Technically it's not
really a tapestry at all, but an embroidery; the skill of its
draughtsmanship, and the sheer vigour and detail, are stunning. The
work is thought to have been carried out by nuns in England,
commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half-brother, in time for the
inauguration of Bayeux cathedral in 1077.
Visits
are well planned and highly atmospheric, if somewhat exhausting. First
comes a slide show, projected onto billowing sheets of canvas; you then
pass along a photographic replica of the tapestry, with enlargements
and detailed commentaries. After an optional film show, you finally
approach the real thing, to find that it has a strong three-dimensional
presence you might not expect from all the flat reproductions. The
tapestry looks - and reads - like a modern comic strip. Harold is every
inch the villain, with his dastardly little moustache and shifty eyes.
He looks extremely self-satisfied as he breaks his oath to accept
William as king of England
and seizes the throne for himself, but his come-uppance swiftly
follows, as William, the noble hero, crosses the Channel and defeats
the English armies at Hastings.
The Cathédrale Notre-Dame (daily: July & Aug 9am-7pm; rest of year 9am-6pm)
was the first home of the tapestry and is just a short walk away from
its latest resting-place. Despite such eighteenth-century vandalism as
the monstrous fungoid baldachin that flanks the pulpit, the original
Romanesque plan of the building is still intact, although only the
crypt and towers date from the original work of 1077. The crypt is a
beauty, its columns graced with frescoes of angels playing trumpets and
bagpipes, looking exhausted by their performance for eternity. Next to
the cathedral, in the shadow of the 200-year-old Liberty Tree, the
former palace of the archbishops of Bayeux has over the centuries received a considerable quantity of porcelain and lace donated by local families. Named the Musée Baron Gerard
in honour of its most generous patron, it has recently been renovated
to display its collection to far better advantage (daily: June to
mid-Sept 9am-7pm; rest of year 10am-12.30pm & 2-6pm; €6.10, combined admission with tapestry).
Set behind massive guns, next to the ring road on the southwest side of town, Bayeux's Musée de la Bataille de Normandie
(daily: May to mid-Sept 9.30am-6.30pm; rest of year 10am-12.30pm &
2-6pm; €5.03) is one of the old school of war museums, with its
emphasis firmly on hardware rather than humans. By way of contrast, the
understated and touching British War Cemetery stands immediately across the road.
Although Bayeux's newest museum, the Mémorial Général de Gaulle at 10 rue de Bourbesneur, near place de Gaulle (mid-March to mid-Nov daily 9.30am-12.30pm & 2-6.30pm;
€2.59), is aimed squarely at French devotees of the great man, it does
make an interesting detour for foreign visitors. The sheer
obsessiveness of the displays, which focus on the three separate
day-trips De Gaulle made to Bayeux
during the course of his long life, somehow illuminates the extent to
which he came to epitomize the very essence of a certain kind of
Frenchness, which seems scarcely removed from self-parody.
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