#6: Bayeux to Caen

Like many towns in Normandy, Bayeux was the site of heavy fighting in WWII and so has been largely rebuilt.  It's a pretty modern town now.  It does have a lovely cathedral, consecrated in 1077 by Bishop Odo, the brother of William the Conqueror.  Although much of it has been rebuilt, the first level is mostly original and has some lovely examples of Norman decoration.

It turns out that while Brittany was settled by the Celts, Normandy was settled by the Norsemen, aka Vikings.  We were in a totally different mindset in this town.  And we had to take our historical sense back to William the Conqueror.  But first we had to go out to dinner.

 And of course, when we left dinner, it was raining.  It was still a lovely evening.

The next morning we saw the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really a long scroll of embroidery telling the story of William the Conqueror.  Photos are not allowed, but there are plenty of photos online.  It was pretty fascinating.  Somehow, decapitated bodies and spears through the heart seem like odd subjects for such lovely embroidery, but they had to tell the story somehow to an illiterate public.  It was really a work of propaganda but who minds.

After seeing the Tapestry, we were off to ride.  We had several interesting stops today, and time for a long ride.  First stop, the German battery at Longues-sur-Mer, where the Germans placed 4 large guns capable of firing 20 km out to sea, plus a large observations post,  at the top of a cliff.

Riding away from the German battery, a reminder of the region's idyllic charm, a thatched-roofed house.

Next stop was Arromanches, where a small museum tells the amazing story of building the "Mulberry Harbours."  Apparently the Germans knew that the Allies would need a harbor, so they piled on the protection at all the existing ports.  The British got around this by building a floating port.  They built the components in England, hiding large pieces in the Thames.  On D+1, they started putting it together in the harbor at Arromanchs.  Within 18 days they had a floating port.

Arromanches Harbor today

A piece of the floating harbor on display

Here's what it looked like in 1944.

And here is the view over the town today.  

After visiting the museum, we had lunch at a local creperie.  Then Sheila and Dawn decided to take advantage of the good weather and ride an extra 20+ miles up the coast to Juno Beach.  Compared to Omaha, it looked like the Canadians had it pretty easy.

We had a long ride back through the fields and the towns.  And then it was time to turn in the bike for the last time.

Next morning, we transferred to Caen for the Memorial Museum there.  We spent over an hour with a delightful 93-year old former Resistance fighter named André Heintz.  Here he poses with the crystal radio he built to listen for coded messages from England for the Resistance (and the spinach can he used to hide it in his pantry).  

He would have spoken to us for hours, but we had no time.  Just like that, it was over.  We left Normandy by train for Paris.  It was quite a trip.