Bayeux

I scampered out of work on Friday at exactly 5:30 to make sure that I could make it to Gare St. Lazare on time to make it on to our 6:48 train to Bayeux. Ok, so to back up just a little bit, Matt and I were heading out for Bayeux which is a small town in France, in Nomandy, which is only about 12 miles from the Beaches of Normandy, and is home to the oh so famous Bayeux tapestry which tells the tell of the battle of Hastings in 1066 and the tapestry dates from somewhere around 1070, so it is almost a thousdand years old. We decided that seeing these things definitely warranted and overnight trip to Normandy, and it is always nice to venture out into the French countryside away from the city for just a night.

So we got to the station, and came a little too close for comfort for me… to missing our train. This was because we had to wait in a long line to get our tickets which we had already paid for… but since we have American credit cards and they won’t work in the do it yourself machines, we had to wait. But luckily we made it in time and found ourselves on trains with little compartments… that made me really think that we were heading to Hogwarts, but alas, after two hours on the train, we arrived in Bayeux, not at Wizarding School. We stayed at a bed and breakfast about five minutes from the train station, where we were greeted by a very friendly older woman who runs the bed and breakfast and her adorable little dog named Monsieur Sushi! After some very serious puppy loving and getting settled in, Matt and I went and found a very Normand restaurant where we had dinner and dessert. The thing about Friday nights in France is the same thing that you find in the US. You are always so tired on Friday nights after a long week of school or internship or what have you, so we went back to the hotel, and literally dropped into our beds until breakfast the next morning which was served at 9am.

In the morning, the sky was cloudy and threatening to rain, but our plan for the day was to go and see the Tapestry and the museum along with the cathedral in the morning and then rent some bikes and venture out to the beaches for the afternoon. This was our plan and we were hoping it would all work out. Matt’s guide book said that the beaches can be hard to get to if you don’t have a car, or rather expensive to get to by bus on a guided tour. We did not have a car and we did not want to pay 50 euro to go on an afternoon long tour, so we thought that renting bikes would be an excellent way to prove Matt’s guidebook wrong, and show that if you have a little bit of gumption you can make it to the beaches no sweat. Plus we have some friends who rode their bikes from Bayeux to the beaches without any problems, so we were sure that if they could do it, so could we.

We had a lovely breakfast with Madame Miriam who ran the bread and breakfast, in the breakfast room which was in her home, which is also home to her four cats to which I am rather allergic… but luckily we were in and out quick enough that after only about eight or nine sneezes I was ok, and ready to go! We talked with her about some interesting things (it is funny how the two things they always tell you not to talk about: Religion and Politics always seem to come up. It is also interesting to me how many people have asked us “Where did you learn to speak French so well?” and we answer “in school’’ The always seem to think that this is amazing and rather impossible, which I think shows how good our education has been both in high school and at DPU. But we set off around ten to find the tapestry.

It was only down the street, and since it is not quite yet tourist season we were some of the only people there to see the tapestry. The pictures you see here were taken illegally, but at least I didn’t know it was illegal… I didn’t see the sign until the way out and no one stopped me… so now I have a ton of pics of the Bayeux tapestry for you and for myself to enjoy. The battle that the tapestry depicts took place in 1066 when William the Bastard (who became William the conqueror thanks to this battle) came over from Normandy and defeated the Saxons to take his rightful place on the throne of England (since the late King Edward had willed it to him.) The tapestry is absolutely fascinating, with all kinds of scenes of battles, but of everyday life in the middle ages which is very fascinating. It also captures details that are often ignored, like the fact that the battle created many women and children refugees, and that the British were not super thrilled to have a new Normand king when all was said and done. It was really outstanding to see, and the fact that it is so old and so well preserved is amazing. It regained a lot of popularity when Napoleon brought out to Paris in 1804 to try to rally support for his ambition to invade England… but when that failed he sent it back to Bayeux and had it put on display. So all and all the tapestry has had a very interesting history, and will continue to fascinate people for years to come, as long as a ton of tourist don’t come and take pictures of it like I did on accident.

We went from the tapestry museum over to the cathedral was very well lit… which I think is because the majority of the windows are not original… I can’t imagine that it did not suffer some sort of damage during the world wars… but some of the stained glass was still there and it was really neat. From our little visit to the cathedral we went over to the tourism office to find out the best place to rent bikes… only to find out that the bike rental place was closed because the people who own it were on vacation for the weekend. And so our adventure to find a way to get to the Normandy D-day beaches began. We went back to ask Miraim what she thought we should do… and while she was really very helpful, there was no way to get out there on a bus that was going to cost less than 50 euro per person… and she had some bikes that she offered to lend us for the afternoon, but it was getting a bit late (only 1:30, but to ride the 12 miles there and the 12 miles back would have taken at least an hour each way and our return train was leaving for Paris around 6:50, so we really did not have a ton of time to spend… if we had left an hour and half earlier we would have been fine, but that hour and a half really made all the difference. So Miriam offered to take us herself for 25 euro a person… but it was really obvious that that was not what she wanted to do with her afternoon, even if it would have meant an extra 50 euro for her.

So we were left with no bikes, no busses, and a reluctant and stressed seeming driver. Our last option was to succumb to what the guide book said would be inevitable: we needed to find a car. And so we set out with Miriam and her daughter to (mom, I need you to take a deep breath and not freak out right now) rent ourselves a car for the afternoon. I am not insured so drive in France, and I cannot drive a stick shift car, which was all that was available (see mom, no need to freak out I did not drive) but Matt was ok for both, so we went to the Nissan dealership and rented a car for 63 euro for the afternoon… which was only 5 euro more than what we would have paid Miriam. The man behind the counter was a bit shocked to hear that Matt was only 20 and had a license… since most French people with drivers licenses do not get them until they are around 25, but he let us have the car just the same. And in the spirit of true adventure, recently put back into us by reading some of Donald Miller’s books and simply because we wanted to go to the beaches since that was what we came to Bayeux to do, we set off, in a little black rented Nissan, into the French countryside, to traverse the 12 miles between us and the American cemetery and a few other sites that we wanted to see. So tragically, we did not prove the guide book wrong. In fact the guide book was annoyingly right about how we would get to the beaches, but regardless Matt (who is a wonderful driver) got us to the beaches in no time. The only hiccup we had with the car at all in fact was the fact that when we went to leave the cemetery to go to Point d’Hoc, we couldn’t figure out how to get the car to go in reverse, and pushing while in neutral was just a bit much, even though we tried, no joke. (I wish I had a picture of that actually since it was hilarious.) Reverse is apparently different in some cars (perhaps all European cars, I don’t know because I have no point of European car reference here) but after a confused and rather silly and embarrassing phone call to the man at the Nissan dealership later, we found out how to do it (pull up?) and we were on our way once again!

But back to the beaches and the cemetery. This was actually the third time I had visited the beaches and the cemetery, but they never fail to impress. They are eerie and magnificent and haunting all at the same time. They are so calm and peaceful, and now the final resting place for so many Americans who will never again go home. They are a strange sort of memorial in themselves, and now, when you see them, covered in trees, and as a place where seagulls nest and wildflowers grow, it is almost impossible to imagine the beaches that day, on June 6th 1944, when thousands of American, Canadian and British soldiers made the perilous trip across the Channel to take back France from the Nazi’s and begin the year long challenge of liberating Europe and taking Germany back from the hands of Hitler. It is difficult to see the beaches washed in blood of the dead and dying, and the deafening sounds of the fire coming from both sides… and somehow, miraculously, the Allies defeated the Germans, without any advantages on their side. is very hard to imagine the beaches that day, when you stand in the quiet wind and breathe the fresh salt air taking in the scenes all around you. But that is what memorials are supposed to do correct? Remind us of things that we might rather forget, but are better off for having remembered. I don’t know, but it was moving just the same.

We returned the car without a problem (and even learned a little bit about the intricacies of using a French gas station) and said good bye to Miriam and her puppies, and got back on the train to go home to Paris. So overall, the overnight trip to Bayeux was a success, if not an adventure to say the least.