Bayeux, Deauville & Honfleur, France

The weekend ended with stops in a couple of small towns in France.

Our first stop was in Bayeux, France to visit the tapestry museum. This was very interesting...everyone that I have met in Brussels has talked about Bayeux and that you MUST go to the tapestry museum so when I saw it on the itinerary, I was very excited to finally get to a place everyone was talking about. I guess my definition of tapestry was different because when I saw the 'tapestry' we were looking at, I was a bit disappointed. The Bayeux Tapestry is not a tapestry, it is a work of crewel, which is several colors of thread embroidered on linen to create a scene. The Bayeux Tapestry has 73 scenes of the Battle of Hastings and is about 230'' long, but one end is missing, so it must have been a lot longer when completed. Ok, so that is cool...but the best part to me was that we were seeing something that was over 1000 years old. WOW! Although not what I was expecting, it was really cool!

Also, Bayeux’s Cathedral is about a 1000 years old and nice to see. It was originally consecrated in 1077 but little remains of that church (only the crypt and part of the west tower) the vast majority being rebuilt in the 13th century, but the central tower was added in the 15th century, and (now considered to be a monstrosity) the dome was added in the 19th century.

After leaving Bayeux, our next stop was Deauville, France and all I have to say is WOW! I absolutely love the beach and had no idea there was such an incredible beach town so close (4 hours from Brussels, I think). I will definitely be going back to this town. We only had about an hour to explore which basically meant we walked along the boardwalk and back to the bus! I cannot wait to go back! They have an American film festival there in early September (we just missed it) so Hollywood stars have been going there for ages. In fact, they love Hollywood so much that they have legendary actors' names on changing stalls on the beach.

I was a bit overdressed!

Our last stop was Honfleur, France where we finally got lunch! We were starving! The sail boats and harbor were awesome! Again, we did not have much time to spend here, but it seemed to be a popular town to visit on the weekends and just have some fun!

JR, Carrie, and me!

The weekend was busy, but great overall! I got to meet some great people from the American Women's Club and had a great time with JR and Carrie. It was also great to see the American flag being flown in all the cities we visited! One question to leave you with...why did the relationship with the France and the United States go so bad? If you visit these little towns you see the American flag and American influence everywhere....so what happened to make them dislike us so much now?