I've had a huuuuuge day today! Did and saw so much. That's why I'm currently sitting in my pyjamas having a 'Downton Abbey' marathon eating takeaway crepes and a panini - haha!
After yesterday's drama with my card not working on the machine at the hotel I woke today to find I had been charged three times! So down I went to reception only to be told that no, I hadn't been charged. Travelling by myself has sure helped me get better at standing up for myself. People see a young girl travelling alone and think I'm a pushover. Not today! I told the lady I wasn't leaving until she refunded me the money. And she did :)
Started the day with a two hour walking tour around Bayeux, during which I saw lots of things I wouldn't have noticed otherwise, and learned some interesting things too....
Even though Bayeux has a population of 14,000 and Caen 140,000, Bayeux is considered a city and Caen not. This is because Bayeux has a cathedral. Speaking of the small population, our guide Crystalle said because the town is quite small everyone knows everyone and she even has the mayor on Facebook! The street names in Bayeux correspond to various trades from medieval times such as tanning leather and selling fish. The word 'Normans' comes from 'men of the north' referring to Vikings that came from Norway to this region. Something I found really interesting was the orphanage where babies born outside of marriage were left in the 17th century. They were brought up by nuns and given the surname 'Marie' as in child of Mary. Today it is one of the most common surnames in France, almost like Smith in Australia! Our last name (which I'm not posting here due to privacy reasons) is of Norman origin according to Crystalle too. So I suppose somewhere along the lines we have ancestors from this area!
I surprised myself with my general knowledge on the tour. The guide kept asking us questions and I knew a lot of the answers, especially about England and London! Yay!
After the tour my next stop was the Bayeux Tapestry museum. The museum houses - guess what!!? - the Bayeux Tapestry! It is 70m long x 50cm high and was created around the year 1070 most likely in Canterbury, England. It tells the story of when the Normans landed in England in 1066, including the Battle of Hastings (14/10/1066) where William the Conqueror defeated Harold. The tapestry, which isn't technically a tapestry at all because it's embroidered not woven, was commissioned originally to decorate the cathedral. It's made up of 9 linen panels depicting 58 scenes. The audio guide was brilliant, it took me along scene by scene and explained the whole story!
The tapestry over the years has been lucky to survive. The cathedral burnt down twice whilst it was housed there, and during the revolution in 1792 it was used to cover a cart of weapons. Bits of it disappeared throughout the centuries but mysteriously reappeared! Luckily for us today it's on full display here and in great condition considering how old it is.
The tapestry was beautiful and I found the story really interesting. After this I set off to the cathedral. I ran into the family I befriended yesterday for the second time today at this point! All together today I ran into them four times - we all kept having a good laugh each time we saw each other!!
I went into the cathedral which was beautiful inside. The cathedral was built in the 11th century but has had lots of parts added onto it over time, so it's got a bit of everything. After this I went to a nearby creperie my new friends recommended and had a delicious egg, Camembert and bacon crepe - mmmmm! I also had a macaron from a nearby patisserie.
I then had a quick rest at the hotel before setting out again. It was another stunning sunny day so I enjoyed the walk to the British War Cemetery. I walked via the bypass, the road built by the allies to transport soldiers and vehicles during WWII because the other streets here were so narrow. The cemetery is the largest commonwealth one from WWII in France. There are about 5000 graves at the cemetery, I was struck straight away by how many there were. 4100 are commonwealth graves (I saw a few Australian ones), 340 unidentified and 500 of other nationalities. The memorial over the road commemorates all the bodies not found from D Day (1807 of them). It was really eye opening for me. Of course I knew that soldiers fighting in war were young, but I think when you learn about it at school anything older than you still seems older I guess?? But today, about 3/4 of the gravestones I saw had 'aged 22' or younger on them. It's so awful to think so many people which so many years ahead of them lost their lives in war. It really hit home today to see that so many of the inscriptions had ages the same as or younger than mine. One was even 17, how awful.
Now, what is D Day? I'll admit, before today I didn't know all that much about it. At school in Australia I think we learn a lot about WWI but not much about WWII, and hardly anything when it doesn't really involve Australia (which makes sense seeing as we mainly learn about Aussie history because we live in Australia!). So I decided to go to the Museum of the Battles of Normandy and educate myself! And tomorrow when I go to the landing beaches I'll be further educated! Here's what I learned today....
D Day occurred on the 6th of June 1944 at the Normandy beaches (not far north from here). In June 1940 France was occupied by Germany, and no allied soldier would set foot in France until 6/6/44. On this day the allies landed on the Normandy beaches to take back France from the Germans. Within three months of doing so they had liberated most of France, with Bayeux being the first city liberated. For this reason, Bayeux wasn't touched at all by war. The English based themselves here a lot of the time and due to them slowly defeating the Germans the city luckily remained untouched. 156,000 allied soldiers in total landed at Normandy on D Day. 132,000 by sea, 73,000 of whom were British and 59,000 American and 24,000 by parachute. The allies suffered 10,500 losses on D Day of which 1/3 were deaths. And though they suffered great losses, 5 Norman beaches were in allied hands after D Day.
I'll learn even more about it tomorrow, hopefully my info today was correct! The museum had so much information, and even a 25 minute movie.
Afterwards I walked back into town and bought two crepes and a panini for dinner. I have now eaten them in the room whilst watching TV. All were delicious!! The crepes were powdered sugar and chocolate with banana!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
No comments:
Post a Comment