Summer Holiday Part 6

The next morning started with a hearty breakfast at the hotel, and then a 15 minute drive to what was to us the hero of this region- the Bayeux Tapestry, located in Bayeux.  The 1000 year old, 70m long tapestry, which tells the story of William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, was presented beautifully and accompanied by an very informative audio guide.  This visit piqued my interest in the history of England and the Normans which is not an area I've ever looked into much before.  A brief walk through the medieval festival, which just happened to be in town that weekend, and a bite to eat under the shadow of the Bayeux Cathedral's ornate spires really made this history come alive.

Bayeux Tapestry

Bayeux backstreets

Medieval fair in front of the cathedral

Lunch at the cathedral

A supposedly 5 minute walk (it was closer to 20 minutes) from the centre of town was the Museum of the Battle of Normandy.  This was a well presented and very informative museum based on the allied D-Day invasion of Normandy in WWII.  It had displays on some of the different aspects of war than just the front-line fighting, such as the changing tactics between WW1 and 2, the impact of technology, psychological warfare techniques (such as air-dropping thousands of leaflets containing misleading and depressing information over enemy troops in the field), and journalism in the war. The in-house WWII documentary movie was very good to watch also.  The mass of information meant we were all a little fatigued before we could get through all the displays, but it was definitely a good museum to visit.

One of the dioramas at the Normandy museum at Bayeux

The afternoon was spent driving along the coastline, visiting the various beaches and historic sites from the D-Day landings.  We walked along the cliffs at Gold Beach where we spotted some large concrete structures that we believe were part of the artificial harbour/offshore dock built by the Allied troops as a base for their naval crafts.  We had a quick walk Omaha Beach, one of the more well known due to its presence in many WW2 first-person shooter computer games, and the most outstanding thing was how it was not outstanding in any way- it was just a normal beach, with not really any sign of the events that happened here 50 years ago.

Ominous sky over the Atlantic Wall near Gold Beach

Concrete structures remaining from the war

Further along the coast between Omaha and Utah was Pointe du Hoc, a fortified German position that was taken by American Rangers during WWII.  There was an American memorial here, and the preserved fortifications and craters were very interesting to see.

Battle scarred Pointe du Hoc

Bullet-riddled entrance of one of the bunkers

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant at the dock area again.  It was not the greatest restaurant- we decided that the only reason it stays in business is that almost all the others are closed on a Sunday night- but I had mussels again, an even bigger pot than the previous night, and I was quite satisfied.  We finished off the day with a walk along the jetty, and then we wandered through the back streets back to our hotel, where we saw the most beautiful sunset over the hills.  Unfortunately the only entrance on that side of the hotel was the car entrance, so after unsuccessfully trying to climb the fence we had to ring reception for them to open the car gate and let us in.

Jetty at Port en Bessin

Sunset over the docks

There must have been a cruise event organised because there was some really nice Maseratis in the car park.    We admired them for a few minutes, then watched Sedelle playing Ice Age Village on her iPad, and then it was time for bed.

Me with a Maserati

Me with another Maserati

Me with our Opel Zafira