My favorite medieval comic strip

June 13, 2018

So in my opinion, visiting Paris was a necessity for this trip.  After all, both Dee and Katie had not been to France since they were toddlers.  Dee was actually born here when her dad was stationed on an American Air Force base, but she has not been back since she was two.  Katie was also two when we were here ten years ago.  Zac was seven but doesn’t have much of memory from that trip.  So with three of the people on the trip needing to see the main sites of Paris, we had to do it.  Then we had Disney for the kids.  It was good, and I’m glad we did it, but now is when the trip really gets exciting in my opinion.  Once we get out of Paris, I really begin enjoying France more.

Before leaving Evreux where our fancy Formule 1 hotel was located, Dee really wanted a pain au chocolat so we found a patisserie.  Given that we were not in a tourist area, prices were reasonable, and there even were deals of the day going on so we ended up getting the pain au chocolat and a few Nutella eclairs for good measure.

We stayed in a nice AirBnb apartment on the Normandy coast in the little beach town of Hermanville-sur-Mer.  I played my cards right with my family in getting a little nicer AirBnb each time.  Once we got in, we dropped off our luggage, and headed over to the town of Bayeux.  I have to admit that I absolutely love the Bayeux Tapestry.  It’s a 230-foot long tapestry dated to the 11^th Century that tells the story of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England. It’s like an embroidered comic book version of history from the beginning of the Middle Ages. From a history nerd’s perspective, it is such a unique piece of history, and it is virtually a miracle that it is still in such good shape – especially given the little historical hiccups such as the French Revolution and World War II where it could have easily been destroyed.  If you want a quick and fun tutorial, here is fairly historically accurate parody-type music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=bQ8A5gRe_Dw

So, of course, we went there, and once we saw the amazing tapestry, we also walked through the cathedral in Bayeux.  Much less crowded than Notre Dame or Saint Chapelle, we were even able to go down into the crypt – pretty cool.  On the way back to our apartment, we stopped at two D-Day landing site locations – Longues-sur-Mer where German battery guns are still in place (non-operational – as far as I know) and Arromanches where the Allies created an artificial harbor for the ships arriving for Operation Overlord.  Both were impressive, and Katie was happy to run around on the beach for a few minutes. 

In my opinion, two thumbs up for today!