We had just two sight-seeing items left on our list for Bayeux this morning: the cathedral and the Bayeux tapestry. The cathedral opened at nine, so we headed there first. The exterior of the cathedral is very striking and if we were to create a bracket in which cathedrals competed against each other in order to establish a clear winner, in the match-up between Rouen’s cathedral and the one in Bayeux, we decided the Bayeux cathedral would be the victor.

We were among the first visitors for the day and were able to avoid the crowds we normally encounter during a cathedral visit. The resulting quiet inside the cathedral really added to the ambiance, especially in the crypt which felt almost spooky.

Next was the Bayeux tapestry, a 70 meter depiction of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, in which William the Conqueror conquered Harold II to take the throne of England. A visit to the tapestry comes with an audio tour, which plays automatically as you enter the room and will not allow you to pause or skip, which creates a really great system for encouraging the flow of visitors. Or at least it would if everyone would stay in front of the scene number that their audio guide was describing, which can be too large of an expectation for some tourists. A few passive aggressive huffs from Becky kept the tourists in front of us moving, so luckily we were able to fully appreciate the story told in the tapestry, which may have otherwise been difficult to follow without narration.

After we finished viewing the tapestry and related museum, we headed on for Mont-St-Michel. We were a little concerned about whether we would find the correct parking area, as the hotel emails a library’s worth of information about parking, signaling that the appropriate parking lot might be difficult to find. Unfortunately, the translated information created more questions for us than it answered, but our trusty Rick Steve’s guidebook filled in the gaps for us and we found it with little difficulty. If it hadn’t been for Rick, we might still be circling the parking lots of Mont-St-Michel.

It was too early to check into the hotel, so we grabbed a quick lunch at a cafe across the street and caught the shuttle to the foot of Mont-St-Michel. Rick Steves told us to come late to avoid the crowds, but when we looked at the steepness of the hill we would need to climb to make it to our timed tour of the abbey we decided it would be wise to start our ascent early. It was definitely very crowded, which meant that our climb was slow. Nevertheless, we made it to the entrance for the abbey tours over two hours before our reservation time. We escaped the crowds by finding an exit to the ramparts and enjoyed the view and the breeze (and an ice cream cone – Chuck’s prize for climbing 41 flights of stairs today) while we waited.

Despite the beautiful view, we eventually grew restless. Fortunately, the people manning the entry gate were very kind and allowed us to begin our tour early. We hiked the rest of the way up and out onto the courtyard and the view was well worth the wait and the hike. The rest of the abbey tour was interesting and picturesque as well but paled in comparison.

After our tour, we made our way back down the mountain with the crowds and managed to get a shuttle back to the hotel much quicker than we expected based on the length of the line waiting for shuttle busses. We grabbed dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hotel, as there aren’t a lot of choices at the bottom of the mountain. We’ll head back out at sunset and attempt to get sunset pictures with the abbey.

Today’s Highlights

• Hushed, reverent cathedral
• Mysterious tapestry dangler
• A drive through beautiful Normandy countryside, seeing the iconic floating Abbey in the distance as we approached
• Delicious Normandy beurre (butter) on our sandwiches at lunch
• Cool breezes, vibrant sunshine, and beautiful views at the top of the mountain
• Becky’s first moules (mussels) for this trip and another glass of Calvados

Tomorrow’s Proposed Adventures

• Heading back to Rouen to return our rental car
• Catching a train to Paris
• Attempting to not get pick-pocketed on the Paris metro (true to form, Becky is much more concerned about this than Chuck is)
• Our first Olympic event: Rugby Sevens at Le Stade de France