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Published: March 29th 2010
Our guesthouse
Ron got full points for this one - his choiceI have one word for this town - delightful! We arrived in Bayeux, Normandy on Thursday after our stay in Paris. As usual this train trip was efficient and comfortable and very reasonably priced. After a reasonably short walk we found our guesthouse, El Castro which was almost too good to be true. As it turned out, it was indeed true and this stunning house was ours to share, even it it was only for two nights. It is hard to pick the age of the house and since the owner only spoke French it was hard to ask her any questions. Nonetheless she was a very gracious host and she ran a fabulous business. You'll get an idea of its' beauty in todays photos. Bayeux, in Normandy is quite an historical town, having survived the war unscathed and being the home to the Bayeux Tapestry, which was our first port of call for the day. To see this relic has been another one of Ron's long held wishes (along with the Roman ruins). This tapestry, which in fact is an embroidery, dates back over 900 years and is still in extraordinary condition, especially given the fact that it survived two
View from our balcony
Such a lovely place to stay fires in the cathedral in which it housed for a long time and the uses it was given over the years, including being used basically as a tarpaulin over a cart. It has also been displayed in what would not be an ideal manner over many years and had to be saved from being cut into pieces. It is now where it needs to be, displayed in temperature controlled conditions in a showcase that gives you an uninterrupted view of the masterpiece. It is actually quite simple in its design and workmanship, but the fact that it was designed to tell a story to the illiterates makes it all the more special. We took a walk around the town, which was extremely quaint with lots of character filled buildings and cobbled streets. The gardens are manicured and the store holders very polite and accomodating. Our warnings about the French being rude and arrogant were, in our experience quite unfounded. If people came to our country and immediately expected everyone to converse in their own language to us, then we probably wouldnt be impressed either. Of course, as with everywhere we have been so far, there is the towns cathedral, which
Dining Room view
Looking out onto the front door is huge, and old, very old. Building started in 1047 and consecrated in 1077, it is a true landmark of the town and dominates the landscape, especially at night when it is lit up. Just walking around the town and browsing the little shops was entertainment enough until it was time to eat again. You cannot avoid the boulangeries and pattiseries as they all display their specialities in a way that just says eat me, eat me. And we did. We found a modern looking brasserie and ate a nice meal. I had a favourite of mine, though not at all French, but the chilli con carne sounded nice and warm to eat on a cold damp night, and it was. We wandered back to our charming lodgings and settled in for the night. Apart from sattellite television, they also supplied free WiFi, so the iPhone was put to good use. It is very handy for checking messages, but a little tedious when it comes to doing some serious typing so still need to rely heavily on the internet cafes. After a very comfortable night's sleep, with no sign (or sound) of American teenagers , which we encountered in Paris,
Quality breakfast
Mum, you would love this place we were up and ready to hit the breakfast table. I have to make one statement at this point (close your eyes for a minute David, sorry), Americans are LOUD! You can hear them over everyone else and their youth are far noisier than anyone else's, especially in the middle of the night when the adults are sleeping and the kids are just coming in from their night out. They would talk at full voice just outside your door and clonk up and down the wooden stairs lilke no one else exists which was pretty annoying. While I can cope with short bursts of their little voices, the non stop, lets keep talking and laughing at 2.30am just had to come to an end. A couple of anonymous bangs on their door, and the noise ceased. The mother in me was back - yes! That hotel/hostel we stayed in we thought was a cheap hotel, but it had a mixture of private hotel rooms and dorm rooms and also had a mix of clientele. One family we befriended was a husband and wife from Iran who were visiting their daughter who, who was holidaying with them was delightful and is
Archway shot
Museum holding the Bayeux Tapestry studying linguistics in France. He is a retired professor and his wife is a practising gynaecologist/obstetrician. They were a very polite family who took great interest in what we were doing and discussing politics with Ron. We seemed to keep meeting up in the common kitchen, where we prepared our dinner and again in the breakfast room each morning. Speaking of breakfast, lets talk about breakfast in Bayeux. OMG. Picture this, a dining room, filled with antique furniture and the table set beautifully with a vase of long stemmed roses on the looking onto the foyer with its magnificent stained glass entry door. Everything on offer was laid out beautifully and of quality, no packet butter or jams, this was the real deal. Cereal, laced with scrolls of real chocolate, glass tubs of yoghurt, fresh baked croissants and baguettes and your own pot of hot drink bought to the table, it was brekkie to die for. The room was serene and dignified with soft music playing from the kitchen, a far cry from the breakfast room the morning before in Paris where it was a one in, all in affair (still enjoyed it though). After filling ourselves to the brim
with everything on offer, we were off to explore more of Bayeux. This day we went to visit the Commonwealth War Cemetery which sits just inside a road built by the British when they landed on D-Day. It is a sad sight, just as any cemetery is, but this one is filled with young men, row after row of them. As a mum of young men these same ages, it really got to me, because these were the stories of heartache after heartache and of lost future generations. We later found the grave of a young Australian soldier so I picked a flower and placed it on his grave. Too sad. After that we walked over the road to the military museum which Ron really enjoyed and then we then took a bus ride to visit the Normandy beaches which of course is where the troops landed. I had hoped to see Omaha beach but we got off the bus too early and landed at the Port du Boisson instead on Gold Beach. We still got to see Omaha beach in the distance. This little port was very qauint again with little fishing boats sitting in the low waters and
we enjoyed our walk along the stone breakwater walls. We bought lunch of some crunchy fresh baquettes filled with ham and cheese which we ate as we walked back to the bus. Having returned to Bayeux, we took advantage of the offer to watch the lacemakers working on this amazing craft. You feel like you are intruding, but you walk into a little shop and four ladies are working feverishly over padded worktops with the developing lace stuck with sewing pins crammed together and these little bobbins of thread which they move back and forth around the pins. They will stop, pull out a pin (don't know how they know which one to pull out because they are all so close together) and move the bobbins back and forth again. This was enthralling to watch but we resisted the urge to buy a memento as the work is so labour intensive that the price has to reflect this. More walking around the town and yes, a visit to the local 1000 year old cathedral before finding another restaurant to eat dinner of pasta which we hadn't eaten for a couple of weeks. Our stay at the lovely Le Castel soon
Chappee
This one is for my Matt _ came to an end and after another scrumptious breakfast served by Monique, the owner we were off to the train station yet again to head off to Dinan, Brittany, which is where I leave you now. We have actually been here for a couple of days already but Dinan needs a blog of it's own. If you enjoy the photos of Bayeux, then wait till you see Dinan cause you aint seen nothing yet - ooh la la it's a gem of a place.
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janet
non-member comment
ham and cheese
Are you eating enough green vegies?