Normandy, France
Today we had land in sight. Pleasure grew as the National Geographic Explorer entered the calm embrace of the ‘Canal de Caen à la Mer’ and proceeded for six stately sunlit miles inland to the city of Caen. At the opening of the gangway at our mooring place, everyone came bounding out to the waiting buses like young bullocks out to spring grass. Three possible destinations awaited– many of us chose Honfleur, that lovely old port town on the Seine estuary, noted for its quality of light. Others preferred historic Bayeux, where the Bayeux tapestry has been preserved for almost a millennium. Some opted for the 17th century Chateau de Balleroy, an architectural jewel designed by the architect Francois Mansart, who gave his name to the characteristic style of double-plane, hipped French ‘mansard’ roofs.
There are many ways to tell a story. Our digital photographs provide our record of our individual expeditions. The painters of the ‘Honfleur’ school did it with oil and pigment, using light, colour and texture to convey the quirky charm of the waterside frontages. The residents of the Chateau de Balleroy filled their home with furnishings and made collections of objects, including a museum of ballooning. Rumours of chocolate cake filtered back to those of us who went elsewhere.
But the narrative told in the 230 foot long Bayeux Tapestry describes the most significant event in English history. Those Kentish women spent ten years (1067 – 1077) bringing to life the account of their conquest as determined by their new Norman-French masters in strands of wool of five colours. Their images are just as potent to the onlooker today as they were in 11th-century Bayeux. Were those tiny irreverent figures sprinkled among the noble beasts in the borders small subversive statements by the silent nuns? To see such a fragile masterpiece in all its vitality so well preserved after so many centuries was a most dramatic experience.
Bayeux was built around its ancient cathedral. Like Caen itself and other towns of the region it was a cluster of medieval streets and houses around its great public buildings, but unlike Caen it was spared damage during the momentous events of 1944, so the town and its great cathedral survive today wonderfully intact. Notre Dam was rebuilt by Bishop Odo, half-brother of William the Conqueror, and within its nave the magnificent hangings were displayed. Today the colours of the 14th century stained glass and the medieval carved and painted stonework are a joy to discover.
