Day Eighty One: Bayeux to Ouistreham

June 16, 2017

We were drawn to Bayeux by the Bayeux Tapestry. It stems from a period in history that Dodie has enjoyed following for a long time, and it really is central to the development of Normandy and of England.

The back story, in a few words (though today we bought two books about it!) begins with Robert the Magnificent (great name, eh), an early Duke of Normandy. Robert took a mistress and in 1027 they produced a son - William, in Falaise.

William was then technically a bastard, and was known as that all his life. There was lots of contention for power in Normandy and William's uncles and cousins were always after his skin. In 1046 he had to flee them in Valognes and to reach safety in Falaise. He sheltered one night with a nobleman named Ryes (we passed the town of Ryes today, where this happened).

By 1057 william was quite secure in Normandy, having won significant battles over the preceding five years.

Meanwhile Edward the confessor of England was big on william, and sent his brother in law Harold to william to offer him the throne of England when Edward would die. Harold went and swore allegiance to William on a stack of relics. But when Edward died, Harold reneged and had himself crowned, in the newly constructed Westminster Abbey.

William naturally freaked at this, and mounted an invasion force. Harold was up north fighting off the Danes, but zipped down to confront William near Hastings. William and the Normans won that famous 1066 battle, launching 300 years of Norman rule in England.

Yes, but what about the tapestry? The tapestry was commissioned by William's half brother Odo. It tells the story of the conquest just like a comic strip, in numbered panels. The thing is constructed of linen backing with wool embroidery, and is 70 meters long.

The tapestry was clearly started just after 1066 and was completed in 1070. where it was exactly made is a subject of debate, and where it has been since then is something I don't know just yet. It used to be housed in Bayeux Cathedral but now is in a nearby former abbey. That is where we went to see it.

On one level the tapestry is a long, sort of crudely drawn comic strip, but textile people wax poetic about the special stitching (unique to Bayeux), the colours, the bestiary of 16 types of animals depicted, the dress of the characters, the fact that horses have different coloured legs in it, what people are wearing, the design of boats depicted, the weapons, the way that motion is shown,
etc. etc.

The actual display space starts right off with the tapestry - at chest height behind glass. If you have a lot of time (which everybody but us seemed to have) they give you an aufio guide that crawls you through each panel.

On a different floor is a movie, very well done, that explains the whole thing - bak story, materials, art work, and so forth. One should really see this first. another floor goes into detail abut the falx and wool materials, the method of stitching, the way the tapestry is stored now to prevent deterioration, and many other topics.

We of course just kind of flew through, getting the general idea but not the details. Maybe another time.

Also for another time is Bayeux itself, which looked small enough to grasp and with enough stuff to make for a much longer visit. The beautiful cathedral would be high on the list of things to check out.

A peek at the Bayeux cathedral in passing

A postcard on the way to the museum reviews the D day beaches. You can learn a lot from post cards!

From the Bayeux tapestry. This and the next four shots are just random looks.

The tapestry display goes down one long wall and around the corner

The tapestry when it was displayed in the cathedral

William the Conqueror and Tapestry stuff

Kids! jamming into the tapestry film. Ha ha, we already beat them to it.

In the gift shop, one could buy tapestries

Chantal, owner of an independent shop, creates tapestry kits

We of course have places to go, so we hopped on our bikes and beetled it out of town.

Look how D Day is called in France and Germany.

Ouest France is a terrific publisher with many great titles

A field of flax, with flowers just opened

Where did we go? Feedback yesterday told us we should not have missed the film at Arromanches. And of course we had ducked in to but not visited the Canadian museum at Courseulles. So we retraced our steps (tracks). While coming out to Bayeux yesterday had been slightly (or at times steeply) uphill, hot, and with a head wind, this time we were cool, slightly downhill, and with a tail wind. So by contract we just flew into Arromanches.

The route (Route de Ryes - remember the guy?) necessarily goes down into Arromanches town. That was ok, because we got a further peek at the place, and ate our lunch outside the D Day museum there. In the gift shop we bought a map of the evolution of the Normandy front following D Day- something to study later. Then we pushed up the steep hill to the 360 degree film presentation. (The path is steep. Surprisingly a Dutch lady that had just come down turned around and helped Dodie push up. Really nice!)

The film lacks narration but has much in sound and visual effects. Super quality speakers vibrate you as guns fire and shells explode. They have gathered lots of footage of the landing, the Normandy battle, and up to the liberation of Paris. It is very evocative and well done. The effect was a little different for Dodie and for me. Dodie reported being "viscerally disturbed" by the carnage - loss of young lives, and destruction. I admit I was more affected by the depiction of the historical events, the scale of the invasion, and by the audio and video theatrics of the production. That would change, a lot, at the Canadian museum, coming up.

On the beach at Arromanches, looks like a scene from Star Wars

Kids! No doubt getting ready to crowd out someplace.

The road from Arromanches to Courseulles (D514) is a little risky, but generally ok. The source of risk is drivers that pass too close, swing out in front of oncoming traffic and swerve in at the last second, do not slow down when passing a cyclist, and speed in general. Same old story. But I am getting so tired of them!

On gold Beach, the house on the left no doubt saw what happened. House on the right - not.

Then and now. This mansion in the 1800's

The Canadian museum was amazing. The development of the whole story was so complete, so logical, so thoughtful, and so modest it was almost like one of our blogs! It began with a review of who and what Canada was - covering the history of immigration, British heritage,WWI, the depression, McKenzie King, and then the direct lead up involvement in WWII. Then it covers every aspect of the war effort, from posters and the home front to each aspect of the fight. For example, a separate display of photos and artifacts for communications, for medical, for rations, etc. etc.

Unlike the memorial at Vimy, there was no rah rah and no glorification of war. But there was more. Screen s presented interviews with veterans - presenting totally level headed accounts of what happened, what it meant, and where Canada has gone since. And more again - personalized biographies of some of the participants, and dozens of short films about various aspects of Canadian culture. It was just packed with stuff!

The main impact, though, came at the end. First there was an overhead screen listing the names of the fallen, in alphabetic order. We were thre for the Desroches and Desrosiers. There were 45,000 Canadians killed in WWII. It takes 13 1/2 hours for all the names to scroll by.

But then there was the movie. Much more than Arromanches, this showed the terrible death toll. It did this with similar sound and motions effects, if on a smalleer scale. But it also used some kind of photoshop magic to disappear people from photos, showing the high proportion that did not come back. In the final scene, a modern family is walking Juno beach, discussing what happened there. As they walk, they are followed by a long column of ghost soldiers. The emotional impact of this was tremendous.

There was even a further, temporary exhibition, but we did not have the emotional energy to even see what it was. We did of course have the energy to check out the gift shop. We picked up a book called the Maple Leaf Cycling Tour. This invites you to follow the Canadian troops through Normandy and on towards Belgium and Netherlands. The Canadians never went to Berlin, but were assigned to go north-east. That is why when we are in Holland we often hear how the Canadians were their liberators. Maybe next time we will follow this book's tour.

In the Canadian museum - history of Canada

The key players in the war. Two less familiar ones are French General Petain, who sold out to the Germans, and Japanese strategist Hideki Tojo.

A war poster, depicts the hard working Canadians

The typical display format in one room of the Canadian museum. Lots of dirrefent subjects are covered.

Where the Canadian troops ended up going

This display panel along the beaches covers the Canadian use of bicycles!

As we cycled from Courseulles toward Ouiestreham a couple came level with us on their bikes and asked some of the usual questions. They were from Rotterdam. Sure enough, the man confirmed that his mother had been liberated by the Canadians.

Back in Ouiestreham, at the same hotel we started at, we are ready to return to Caen. We now know that while the defences at Sword Beach had been a little weaker than expected, Caen was very tough. The Canadians only entered Caen on July 9, after the city had been devastated by both Allied bombing and German artillery.

From Caen, rather than fight the Falaise pocket, we will seek out a train to somewhere nearer Paris. We want to see if we can find Didier's parents, on the Eure, and/or Monet's Garden on the Seine. Right now we have no plan and no directions for either. But the Research Department will very soon look into it.

Canada house - the first house liberated by the d Day assault

Pipers were inspirational to the British

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 3,991 km (2,478 miles)

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