Pictures from Bayeux

Mainly by Nancy, and some from Julianne

Our problems with posting anything in France meant that we just couldn't get pictures from Bayeux up on the blog (mainly, our connections were so puny that everything just took forever, or just wouldn't). So here are pictures of the town, and a couple of the Tapestry. 

The museum people don't want you taking pictures, so I just took a couple, but really, for Tapestry pictures, Google on "Bayeux Tapestry" and then click on "Images." You will have more pictures than you can swallow at one sitting.

Blogger is defeating my efforts to upload lots of pictures; consider this a first post, and another will come right along with more pictures.

 We arrived Saturday evening, and walked from our campground on the north edge of town down into the heart of town for supper. The sun was just setting.

 The next morning we walked along the river again in daylight. The last time I was here, in 2004, this walking path didn't exist, I think. Or maybe it was just that Rob Keyes-Back and I had rooms in a hotel on the south side of town, and we never found this beautiful walk? Anyway, you can pick it up from the tourist information center and walk about a mile north on it. 

The carvings outside the Bayeux Cathedral.

These are through glass in low light. Better to Google "Bayeux Tapestry" and check out "Images." But anyway, the important thing to notice, from an artistic standpoint, is how the sense of 3-dimensions was achieved using very few colors and no depth of field. See how the far legs of the horses are a different color from the near legs? There's also a lot to say about the techniques of embroidery, but I'll let that go. Each scene is described in Latin, which helps understand it. There are edgings of decorative scenes (usually unrelated to the story) from local life, fantasy animals, tools, etc. 

This is a story told by the winners, yet the enemy, Harald, is not described as weak or evil. He's presented as a worthy opponent who lost mainly because his troops were tired, and, oh by the way, from the Norman point of view his cause was not just. One British commenter, however, described the Norman Conquest as the biggest catastrophe ever to strike the British. Everything depends on where you're standing.

-- by Nancy