A short stay in Bayeux, France

When we travel, a lot of our memories are based on food. Below is an example of an appetizer I had when dining in a small restaurant in Bayeux, France. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name and I do not have the Rick Steves' book on France, which is where we found a write-up on the restaurant.

As you can see, it was a work of art. It was a beautiful mixture of cheeses, thin sliced ham, tomatoes, cantaloupe, greens, and, one would think, some sort of glue to hold it all together. It was fantastic, as was the rest of the meal. The rest of the meal, including wine and desert, was excellent! And, it was about half the price we would have paid to have a similar dinner in the states.

Every decent sized city and village in France has their version of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Bayeux is no exception. As you can see, the cathedral is, yet again, and amazing work of architectural art.

The day we went inside, the sun was shining through its stained glass windows, allowing the colour to wash over the walls of the sanctuary. Fortunately, the photos I took came out relatively well.

Another thing we love to do when we travel is to time our arrival and length of stay in a particular area to when we can attend the local markets. These markets are a lot of fun, extremely interesting, and the aroma from the food they sell, mixed with the fresh air makes one hungry regardless of the last time you ate. The market in Bayeux is held every Saturday morning, and is located right outside the Hotel Mogador, which, as luck would have it, is where we stayed.

During World War II, Bayeux was liberated by British troops shortly after the D-Day landings at Normandy. Bayeux is located approximately 4 miles from the D-Day beaches, which is how we happened to stay there. The photos above and below were from our second visit. During the first visit, we toured Omaha Beach. I will cover that in a later blog, but I did not want to end this one without showing the entrance to the museum, and the cemetery across the street from it. The cemetery holds over 5,000 remains of British soldiers, along with those of the Germans who died trying to stop the invasion. I thought it was interesting that the allied graves were marked with white headstones and crosses, whereas the German ones were in black.

In leaving, I often wonder if we would have been allowed to make the trips we have if not for the sacrifice of the millions of young men and women that fought for the freedom so many now take for granted.