Bayeux and Mont-St-Michel, France

Mont-Saint-Michel

It was an uneventful overnight flight to Paris.  Neither Beth or I have mastered the art of sleeping too much on planes, so other than being a little sleep deprived we were ready to go.  As I had mentioned in a previous blog, we were not going to be spending anytime in Paris other than one night at an airport hotel at the end of the trip.  Our first destination was the city of Bayeux, which is located in the Normandy region.  It was about a three hour drive from Paris that was easy to navigate other than the foggy conditions we had for most of the drive.
Bayeux is centrally located for exploring this area and has a few very interesting sites as well.  After checking in, we headed right out to explore a bit on foot around the city center. Our hotel, the Hotel d' Argouges is a small hotel that was built in 1734 as a private mansion.  It's aged quite nicely through the years and functioned as a hotel since 2000.  It is also conveniently located very close to the cities two main attractions, the cathedral and the Bayeux tapestry.
The cathedral was built in the 10th century, and like many of the huge cathedrals around Europe it has been damaged by wars, revolutions and time only to be repaired and rebuilt.  It is an impressive structure from the outside that towers over the city.  Inside there are numerous stained glass windows, a huge alter and pipe organ that are well worth seeing.

Bayeux Cathedral

Storefront along one of the main streets in Bayeux

The Cathedral at night

Entrance to the Hotel d' Argouges

A few blocks from the cathedral is a small museum that is dedicated to housing the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is an embroidered cloth that measures over 230 feet in length and 20 inches in height.  It was created in the eleventh century and tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England which was led by William, Duke of Normandy.  There is a narrated guide that tells the story of the fifty scenes depicted in the tapestry from the uprising through the Battle of Hastings.  If you want to see it sometime in the future you have two options.  It will remain on display here in Bayeux until 2020.  It will leave France for the first time in over 950 years (it was created in England) and will be on display in London's  British Museum until 2022.  During the two years it is on loan to the British Museum the museum here in Bayeux will be undergoing major renovations.  The tapestry is well worth seeing no matter where it is on display.  
Yesterday we drove about an hour and a half from Bayeux to Mont-St-Michel. This is a small island located around 800 yards off the coast.  It has a permanent population of around fifty people but is visited annually by over three million and was one of the first sites to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The islands history started to be written when an Irish hermit took up residence there back in the sixth century.  A monastery was built on the island in the eighth century and it has continued to evolve since then.  It has served as a strategic stronghold in times of war that because of it's unique location was never conquered.  Currently there are a small community of monks and nuns that make up around 20 percent of the islands population of fifty residents.
The island itself, as well as the buildings on the island are spectacular.  In recent times they have served as inspiration for the Disney film Tangled as well as the fictional city of Minas Tirith in the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.  A visit to Mont-St Michel is well worth it.  If you do go, be advised of a couple of things:
A few times a year the tides are high enough that access to the island is not available.  These are rare but it would be worth checking ahead.  Secondly, there are plenty of stairs!

This is a picture of a postcard showing the island during an exceptionally high tide.  The island is not accessible.