Bayeux

Another day, another beautiful French village with an incredible history. Next on our trip is the very old town of Bayeux. It's a lovely little town on the River Aure, filled with timbered houses and cobblestone streets. It was founded in the 1st century BC, but evidence of earlier Celtic occupation has been found around the area. Bayeux was an important coastal defense town of the Roman Empire against pirates. It was, of course, later overrun by Vikings. The ducs de Normandie sent their sons to Bayeux in order to learn the Norse language, probably so they could beg for mercy while the Vikings were burning their villages. The city fell in to decline when William the Conqueror set up his capital in nearby Caen. During WWII, Bayeux was spared from bombardment and was the first French town liberated in the Battle of Normandy.

After calling several hotels and finding them all booked, we were finally able to reserve a couple of rooms at a bed and breakfast run by an older English couple who have lived in France for 22 years. They had just returned from a vacation that day and hadn't taken any prior reservations, but they were willing to take ours. Jackpot! Their property was beautiful and the perfect place for the kids to play. Fish, goats, and geese to feed, sheep to count, grass to run on, and a swingset to play on...what could be better? The manor house and old stone barns were fun to explore, imagining just how much hay and grain had to be drug across the stone lintel into the loft over the years to wear it down so much! We had so much fun with Rosemary and "The Colonel". Their witty banter and English colloquialness was such a delight, especially after hearing mostly French for over a month.

The Colonel: "She can make you porridge. It takes but two minutes."

Rosemary: "Well, it takes more than two minutes."

The Colonel: "You mean, it takes YOU more than two minutes."

Rosemary: "That's because I make PROPER PORRIDGE!"

Us: "We're good. We don't need any porridge."

It felt just like staying at your English grandparents' house and it was awesome. It made me miss my own English grandmother so much!

Feeding the geese:

Counting and naming the baby lambs:

Our quarters. A nice upgrade from our tiny hotel in Rouen:

Books in English!

After settling in a bit, we headed in to town:

We took Rosemary's advice and tried a traditional Norman restaurant, "Le Petit Normand", for dinner. Now, let's be honest. One of the best parts about France is the FOOD. It's amazing. It's also very unique in each region of France. Normandy is known especially for apples and hard apple cider. Instead of wine tastings, there are cider tastings. Instead touring wineries, you tour cider farms. They cook meat in cider and use cider in sauces. Apples are everywhere. Normandy also specializes in cream sauces, sea salts, and seafood. At dinner, Monsieur Bacon and Madame Salade tried the cider, of course. It was very good. Monsieur Bacon had lamb in a traditional cream sauce and Madame Salade had a "Pot of Fish" (think chicken pot pie, but instead of chicken it is a variety of seafood: salmon, cod, mussels, and shrimp). The kids had ham and cheese omelettes ( the omelette was invented not far from here!). Although service was painfully slow, we all really enjoyed our meals. It was all great and our kids now adore omelettes.

Outside, we had a lovely view of the town's cathedral, Notre-Dame de Bayeux. The site is very old, once home to Roman sanctuaries. The cathedral itself was consecrated in 1077. It's huge presence towers over the small town of Bayeux. We had the opportunity to tour it on another day and it is truly beautiful. The outside walls of the church are covered in green moss. The inside is bright and airy, much different than most of the old churches we have toured. We were even able to go into the 11th century crypt, painted with artwork from so many centuries ago. So cool! Madame Salade and Monsieur Bacon both commented on how bright it was for such an old church, probably because the stone was lighter and many of the windowpanes were clear glass instead of stained glass. They have also made an unusual effort at maintaining architectural conformity over the years.  Most of the old churches we've seen are easy to spot the additions and refurbishments, but not so here.  It was beautiful.

Another highlight of our time in Bayeux was a visit to their market. They have a very lively market with an array of foods from many different countries (unlike Aix's market) and live animals. Rosemary had suggested a visit to the market and told us it was where she had purchased her geese. The market was busy and a lot of fun. We ended up getting lunch there. We were sad to see the Spanish paella booth already sold out and went with a Moroccan dish of couscous with chicken and veggies after a long and barely understood explanation in French that they were out of lamb. OK? OK. OK? OK, just give us some food, smile and nod. After paying an ice cream seller a euro for utensils, we had a picnic on some steps next to the river. Our Moroccan lunch was out of this world delicious. Everyone in the family enjoyed it. It started drizzling as we ate, so we got in the car and journeyed on from Bayeux.