Bayeux to Mont St Michel

Wednesday 27^th April

We decide to bite the bullet this morning and go to see the Bayeux Tapestry as we may never get the opportunity to see it again.

We had an early breakfast.  I was turned off my breakfast this morning by a dirty bastard that came in picking his nose, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and then scratching his ears with his fingers all within 2 minutes and then going along touching all the food, not using a plate or any utensils.  He was quite off putting.

We leave at a sparrow fart and are on our way, once we get started it doesn’t seem like we would have the long day that we initially thought.   We stop to refuel, himself gets the fuel and I jump out and clean the windscreen, what team work!  Himself and herself have always worked well together and this trip exemplifies this:  Photo’s/blog, tolls, driving/navigating, packing up, researching; it is certainly lovely to be able to spend this time together.  We are running along like a well-oiled clock.

It is quite a misty morning and the coolest that we have had, only 10 degrees when we start out.   We make our way to Bayeux which is famous for its 68 metre long piece of embroidered cloth.  It is 11^th century and it has 58 scenes which vividly tell the story of the Norman invasion of England in 1066. The tapestry itself is wool thread embroidered onto linen cloth.  The tapestry is divided into 58 scenes briefly captioned in almost readable Latin, the main narrative, told from a Norman perspective fills up the centre of the canvas, while religious allegories and depictions of daily life in the 11^th century unfold along the borders.  The final showdown at the Battle of Hastings is depicted in graphic fashion complete with severed limbs and decapitated heads.  This was absolutely brilliant, we loved it and it was worth the extra couple of hours of driving.   We also visited the Cathedral Notre Dame whilst we were in Bayeux, which dates from the 13^th century and was also worth the visit.  It is a shame that you couldn’t take photo’s of the tapestry.

We then make our way to Mont Saint Michel.  We have had a picture of the iconic image of Mont Saint Michel in our dining room for years, so of course it had to be on the itinerary.  As we were driving in we could see it poking through the haze in the distance and it looked fantastic.  The bay around Mont Saint Michel is famed for having europes highest tidal variations, apparently the difference between low and high tides can reach up to 15 metres.  It was low tide when we arrived and the Mont was surrounded by bare sand for kilometres around, that is, all baring the tourists.  We were astounded at the number of people visiting, “bloody tourists” we muttered to ourselves.  There are miles of cars and motorhomes parked just over the causeway.  Some of the tourists really aren’t that smart, they take prams when you have to walk up a lot of steps and they take dogs on leads.  I can’t imagine that it is much fun for the poor little and not so little dogs being dragged around in such crowds. We even saw a poor dog in a backpack designed for carrying a young child. 

We made our way to line up to go through but the line went on forever, so we decided to check into the hotel and have a pint whilst we waited for the crowds to die down, which worked well for us. 

The long history of Mont Saint Michel is thought to date back to 708, when Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, had a sanctuary built on Mont Tombe in honour of the Archangel.  The mount soon became a major focus of pilgrimage.  In the 10^th century the Benedictines settled in the abbey, while a village grew up below its walls.  By the 14^th century it extended as far as the foot of the rock.  An impregnable stronghold during the hundred years war, Mont Saint Michel is also an example of military architecture.  Its ramparts and fortifications resisted all the English assaults and as a result the Mount became a symbol of national identity.  Following the dissolution of the religious community during the revolution and until 1863 the abbey was used as a prison.  Classified as a historic monument in 1874, it underwent and continues to undergo major restoration work.  It was great to experience the splendour of the abbey that the people of the middle ages regarded as a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem on earth, an image of Paradise. 

After dinner we went for a walk to view the abbey at night and it looked magnificent, unfortunately our camera didn’t capture it well.   However, the sight will be permanently etched in our memories.