Bayeux, France

Bayeux, France is famous for many different reasons -

It was the first French town to be liberated after D-Day (on June 7th) and it was not damaged during the war.

It is home to the Bayeux Tapestry - a piece of embroidery 19 inches high by 203 feet long that tells the story of the Battle of Normandy from 1066.  It has 58 detailed scenes that tell the story piece by piece and is the "most accurate and lively document to survive from the Middle Ages" according to our Michelin Green Guide.  We did go see it, but you are not allowed to take pictures of it (imagine that - no cameras around a piece of cloth that is nearly 1000 years old!) so we bought a fold out paper reproduction of it that we can bring back to show people.  We did take a picture of the kids out in front of the building where it is housed today!

Bayeux is also home to the Cathedrale Notre-Dame, which was built in 1077 and you can see above.  Unfortunately we were not able to get inside of it when we tried!  It is a beautiful old church that can be seen from all around the town as you drive through the countryside.

The ring road that circles the town was originally built in 1944 by the Allies!  It seems that after they liberated the town they found it difficult to get their equipment through the narrow streets, so they put down steel mesh roads to get them around the town without harming it.  That has now been turned into the ring road around the city.

Casey, Alex, and Amanda outside the Bayeux Tapestry Museum.

We stopped in this little shop for sandwiches - Alex, Casey, and Amanda.  We have learned since being in Europe that the best thing to put on a ham and cheese sandwich is thinly sliced tomatoes and slices of hard boiled egg - all tasting best when on a freshly made baguette!  The picture of Notre-Dame you saw at the top of this page was taken from outside this shop.

This little canal is between the Tapestry Museum and Notre-Dame.  We just thought it was a nice place!

Notre-Dame at night - taken on our last night in France.

Like I said before, all the towns have a museum from 1944 - you will see the one from Bayeux on another page!

Bayeux is considered the town to stay in for a visit to Normandy - we chose a smaller town about 6 kilometers closer to the sea (which is only 8 kilometers from here!) instead of staying here - we loved our location in Tracy-sur-Mer!  You will see a lot of town names with "sur-Mer" after the main name - it simply means "on the sea"!  We came to Bayeux several times for dinners since it was so close!