normandy

on friday some friends and i decided to go to normandy.  we didn’t know exactly how to get there but we hopped on an 8:45 train and hoped for the best. the train took us to bayeux, home of the renowned bayeux tapestry, which tells the story of the norman conquest of england.  we had an hour before the bus that would take us to the cemetery arrived so we wandered through the town and found the museum that houses the tapestry.  i was very excited to see the tapestry (which is actually not a tapestry at all but embroidered linen) because i’ve studied it in nearly every history and art history class i’ve taken and it certainly did not disappoint. it’s incredibly well preserved. they must have done lots of restoration because cloth is known for its fast rate of deterioration and after nearly 1000 years the colors are still vibrant.  below is the bayeux cathedral where the tapestry was displayed to tell the story of the conquest to the illiterate medieval population.  unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go inside. 

according to the tapestry (and the highly informative audio guides at the museum), the aging king edward of england sends harold, the most powerful earl in england, to normandy to meet with william, duke of normandy to tell him that he is to succeed edward on the english throne.  on the way harold’s ship is blown off course and he lands in an inhospitable part of normandy where he is taken captive by guy de ponthieu.  with great effort, william manages to rescue harold and in gratitude harold must swear to give william his throne.  harold makes this oath and then returns to england. soon after, edward dies and harold, ignoring his promise to william, assumes the throne.  william hears of harold’s treachery and with his army invades england.  after a long and bloody battle, the normans triumph, harold is shot in the head with an arrow, and william assumes the throne of england becoming known thereafter as william the conquerer, the first king of england.  

after the museum, we took the bus to the American cemetery where we wandered around a bit before heading down to the beach in search of food because by this time it was around 2 and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. 

most people who go to normandy rent a car and we figured out why: the cemetery and the beach are literally just the cemetery and the beach. 

there is no civilization for miles.  there weren’t even very many other tourists.

just lovely scenery, old bunkers, tombs and cows, which, after wandering around for hours on foot we considered riding to get back to town.  fortunately it didn’t come to that. we came upon a building and went inside to ask where the visitor’s center is.  here’s how it went:

me, in (broken) French: we are lost. where is the visitor’s center?

security guard: this IS the visitor’s center.

me: oh.

guard: stupid american girls. (ok he didn’t actually say that but it was implied.)

once inside we learned that there was in fact no food in the vicinity but there was the flag lowering ceremony at the cemetery by a world war ii veteran. it was quite moving. they played taps. after that we made our way to the bus stop, where we considered stealing apples from a nearby orchard but we decided the threat of french prison was greater than our hunger.  around 5:30 the bus finally came.  on the bus ride back, we met some boys who seemed to be our age who were staying in bayeux and we invited them to dinner with us.  at dinner we learned they were not college students as we had assumed but swiss high school students on a school trip!  oops! to make the situation more embarrassing their classmates and teachers showed up and they were severely reprimanded by their teachers for deserting the group with les copines de la plage (the girlfriends from the beach - us!).  by this point we decided we needed to leave so we quickly paid for our food and hurried toward the train station, laughing about our misadventures all the way back to paris : )