La Tapisserie de Bayeux

They have a plaque outside the museum saying
Charles & Dianna visited in 1987

Like I said in 'Une Excursion en Normandie', we arrived at the Tapestry Museum just as the paydesk was closing at 11:45am, but we were still able to look at the Tapestry itself.

We were expecting to have to pay 9€ each to get in, but Allison asked what age the 'billet de Jeune' was and the receptionist said '18, ou étudiants' so we managed to get in for just 4€ instead. Excellent discount!

We got one of those handheld audio guides for viewing the tapestry (helpful as I wouldn't have had a clue what I was really looking at otherwise!) which talked you through the different scenes and the storyline.

Also, we apparently weren't supposed to take any pictures but there were no signs anywhere so we just went ahead without using the flash as that's a fairly common rule. However, one of the people who worked there came and told us 'no pictures at all' right when we were about to leave so we'd already done it so... Enjoy!

The Beginning
Old King Ed asks Harold
to go to Normandy
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 1)

So for pretty much everyone, including those in the UK who learnt about it in Year 8 History and can't remember anything (like me), basically the story of the tapestry is this:

L'Histoire de la Bataille de Hastings

Off Harold sails to Normandy
(with the men wading into
 the Channel with bare legs)
(Bayeux Tapestry Scenes 4-5)

"Next stop, Brittany"
Harold: "Oops, wrong stop."
Breton King: "You can be my prisoner"
(Bayeux Tapestry Scenes 7-8)

King Edward of Wessex (I think) realises that he's getting a bit old and that he'll probably die soon. He has no children to pass the throne on to so thinks, 'hey, I was exiled in Normandy for 20 years and my best bud was a guy called William the Bastard (probably also a cousin), he will be my heir'. 

William (I think) says goodbye
to his girlfriend (the one under the arch)
 by patting her on the head.
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 15)

So he calls his brother-in-law, Anglo-Saxon Harold, and says "Hey Harold, could you sail across the channel and tell my best bud William that he's gonna be King please?"

(Top-middle) An abbey on a mountain
by the sea with the words /
'Mont' and 'Michaels' next to it?
It's Saint-Mont-Michel!
(Bayeux Tapestry Scenes 16-17)

William: "You owe me"
Harold: "Don't worry. I promise you
will be the next King in England."
William: "Swear it on these treasures."
Harold: "Ok then."
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 23)

So off Harold goes to France, but there's some bad weather and their boats get steered off course and end up landing in the hostile land of Breton (Brittany) where there is a not very nice king who makes Harold and his travelling companions prisoner.


Good ol' Will in Normandy hears about this and is not happy about it, so off he rides with an army of Normans to save Harold from Breton (which he does).

King Edward dies.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
The hand of God reaches down.
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 25)

Harold is grateful, but William says, "well, I've done you a huge favour so you now must swear on some golden treasures that I will definitely be king when my best bud Eddie dies". 

Harold (Far left): "I am King"
Spies: "Tut tut, let's go tell William..."
*Spies go tell William* (to the right)
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 31-32)

Harold swears on
the treasure.

There's a bit somewhere (I think before he makes the oath) in which William and Harold ride around France conquering various bits of land.

William builds some boats
so they can sail across
the Channel to go fight Harold.
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 35)

Anyway, Harold goes back to England where Edward dies/has died. Harold suddenly has an ephiphany:

The Normans get lots of supplies
ready for the battle
eg. armor, weapons, food and wine
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 37)

"The King is dead. William isn't here. I want to be King. No one can stop me. Oh, ok, I'll just be King".


However, there are some spies in Harold's court and one of them runs off back to Normandy to tell William what has happened.

Off they ride to Battle!
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 51)

Williams says "Ohhh heeeelll naaw", though actually it would have been in Norman Latin.... 'Awww, non non non'? 

The Battle of Begins,
somewhere around the town of
Battle in East Sussex
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 52)

William builds a huge Norman army, constructs boats, readies supplies and sets sail for England to take back 'his' land.

William arrives in the south of England and has a lovely time making himself at home. "Hi people, I am your new King". He has a few feasts and rests. They've got loads of time before Harold even finds out they're there.

The Battle rages on
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 55)

Meanwhile, Harold and the Anglo-Saxon armies are up north fighting off some Danish vikings who are trying to invade somewhere around Scotland. They win, but word reaches them that William is invading back down south (somewhere near Portsmouth) so they make the 400 mile ride south.

Lots of men and horses die
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 53)

I realised I didn't get a picture of this key part
so I've borrowed one from Wikipedia.
Harold gets struck in the eye with an arrow and dies.
The battle is over.
(Bayeux Tapestry Scene 57)

There is a huge battle in Sussex between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans where many people (and horses) die. This is called the Battle of Hastings, and happened in the year 1066 (948 years ago).

Partly because they were tired from the ride down, and because William was so well prepared, they don't do so well. Then, finally, Harold dies from getting an arrow in the eye so William wins.

William takes the throne and is henceforth (or maybe he was before) known as William the Conqueror.

The End.

And there you go. Apologies for any obvious factual inaccuracies and/or ad-libbing.

Here's a picture to show how long it is
(almost 70 metres), this is just one half!

Replica of an 11th Century warship

I found out loads of interesting stuff here. For example, apparently at the time, the priests/bishops went to war alongside the King (kind of like a good luck charm) but they weren't allowed a sword or bow because it was against the rules for them to kill. So, instead they had a staff to knock people out with.

We got kicked out at 12pm when they closed for lunch so we just went to the Cathedral and had lunch, and then went back at 2pm (thankfully the ticket is valid all day).
The museum is quite interesting. There is an interactive touchscreen computer with projections onto the wall which shows you the different scenes on the Tapestry with a description - very helpful if you were a bit confused by the story the first time!

A (rather life-like) statue of
an 11th Century King

There was a lot of information about the threads and dyes used, and a bit about how it would have been sewn. Apparently they used just three types of dyes to create (I think) 8-10 different shades and colours, which are not as clear as they would have been due to aging, but some of which are quite vibrant.

They also had some information about what had happened to the Tapestry between the time it was made and now, and about how they have to store it to prevent damage.

There are beliefs that the Tapestry was made to hang around the knaves in the Notre-Dame du Bessin Cathedral of Bayeux, as they believe it was commissioned by the Bishop of Bayeux (I think that was William's brother or something).

The tapestry also apparently has a piece missing - historians believe that there was more to it at the end but that it has been damaged.

It has also survived (I think) three fires in the Cathedral, during which times the Tapestry was there, some really shoddy 'renovation' work, and then during the Revolution some French people stole it and used it as a tarpaulin to hide weapons and other smuggled things out of the city of Bayeux, however they were stopped and someone realised what the tarpaulin actually was and it was returned safely.

Tiny models of different Anglo-Saxon forts or Norman castles.
They had tiny little animals and people on them,
some barely bigger than a large crumb!

There was also a lot of statues and little figures about life in the 11th Century in the museum, and about the building and architecture of castles, and then a section where you could see the studies of different sections of the tapestry in more detail - which we skipped as we wanted to see the film instead that started at 15:15 in English.

The film was quite good. It was only 16 minutes and we spent the first 5 thinking, 'we know all of this already' but it then went into some more detail about how the tapestry would have been sewn, and some of the speculations about it. It also involved mini-clips of battle re-enactments.

We left at about 3:30pm (much later than anticipated), but I think it was worth it to watch the film and take our time going around the museum!

Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Normandy!