Mon 04.Jan.2021
California
Imagery - Bayeux, Normandy, FR (2010)
Covid is still stalking California. L.A. ICUs are saturated. No way would I
ride BART to the airport, much less spend hours in a plane with
hundreds of people. Well, I still have lots of pictures from the last ten years
and more, so let's go!
Still working my way across Normandy, bound for southwestern England.
Rouen... Caen... and now Bayeux, site of a famous medieval tapestry,
and the Anglo-American invasion of the Second World War.
No pictures of either of those famous things, but what there is isn't bad!
Bayeux sits on the very modest river called Aude.
The Danube it isn't; the Aude is hardly what most people think of as a creek.
That said, it fits its charming little town.
Bayeux was the first town liberated in the Normandy landings in the Second
World War. The German forces were caught so unprepared, that the town was captured
largely intact.
Local tour companies offer tours of the various beaches of the D-day
landings.
For myself, I was satisfied hanging out, and visiting the town's other
big claim to fame - the Bayeux Tapestry. A long embroidery (~70m) with text
and illustrations of William the Conqueror's conquest of England.
As you walk the length of this huge medieval comic book, a handset gives you
the scene-by-scene story (in your own language, in case you don't read Latin).
After the conquest, William ordered the first Census of England and its wealth,
largely so he could levy informed taxes. The result came to be known as The
Domesday Book.
Out on the streets, we find a relaxed French country town.
This being Normandy, rich creamy cheeses are abundant, even by French
standards.
A smallish town, Bayeux still has a fine cathedral.
Next: England