Bayeux is a town of about 13,000 in Calvados, Normandy, and it holds two things of the first importance: the BAYEUX TAPESTRY, an embroidered account of the Norman conquest of England made within a generation of 1066, and the position of being THE FIRST TOWN IN FRANCE LIBERATED after the Normandy landings, on 7 June 1944, and almost undamaged as a result.
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One honest note about the photographs. NEITHER THE TAPESTRY NOR THE D-DAY BEACHES IS PICTURED HERE, which is to say neither of the two reasons most people come. The Tapestry may not be photographed, which is as it should be; the beaches are twenty minutes away and our set does not reach them. What you see is the cathedral, a memorial and a watermill, and both of the absent subjects are described below.
What Is Here
THE TAPESTRY IS 70 METRES LONG AND YOU WALK ITS LENGTH WITH AN AUDIO GUIDE. It is not a tapestry but a wool embroidery on linen, nine centuries old, and it tells the story of Harold's oath, Halley's comet, the crossing and the Battle of Hastings in a continuous strip. The audio guide moves you along at its own pace, which takes about 40 minutes and which you cannot pause, so go round twice if you want to linger. CHECK WHETHER THE MUSEUM IS OPEN BEFORE YOU TRAVEL: it is subject to a major renovation programme and the display arrangements have changed.
The cathedral is the equal of the Tapestry and gets a fraction of the attention. Notre-Dame de Bayeux is Romanesque below and high Gothic above, consecrated in 1077 in the presence of William, with a crypt of painted angels and a chapter house with a medieval maze in the floor. The image at the top of this post is it at night.
The watermill and the Aure river are the second image, and the lanes along the water behind the cathedral are the quietest and best part of the town.
THE D-DAY BEACHES ARE THE OTHER REASON TO BE HERE AND BAYEUX IS THE RIGHT BASE FOR THEM. Omaha Beach and the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer are about 20 minutes west; Gold Beach and Arromanches with the remains of the Mulberry harbour are 10 minutes north; Pointe du Hoc, Utah Beach and the Normandy American Cemetery are all within an hour, as are Juno, Sword and the Pegasus Bridge. THE BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY in the town is the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France, with 4,648 graves.
The Musee Memorial de la Bataille de Normandie in the town gives the campaign context before you drive out, and it is worth doing in that order.
When to Go
May, June and September. Normandy in June has long daylight and the gardens are at their best.
EARLY JUNE IS THE D-DAY ANNIVERSARY and the whole area fills: accommodation books many months ahead and the coast roads are busy. Significant anniversaries are busier still.
July and August are busy and warm by Norman standards.
Winter is grey, wet and windy, with short days, and the beaches in a January gale are a genuinely different and more honest experience.
Rain is possible in every month. This is the Channel coast.
Getting There
By train, about two and a quarter hours from Paris Saint-Lazare via Caen, with the station a ten minute walk from the centre.
By car, roughly three hours from Paris and 30 minutes from Caen.
By ferry, Ouistreham near Caen takes services from Portsmouth, and Cherbourg is about an hour and a half away.
The beaches need a car or a tour. Public transport along the coast is thin, and a guided half or full day is the usual answer for anyone without a vehicle.
Is Bayeux Safe for Women?
Bayeux is a small, prosperous, very safe Norman town. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in France, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in France, with shopping centres, entertainment venues, sporting events, transport hubs and crowded gatherings named as possible targets. The everyday risks are more specific than that sounds. Pickpocketing is organised on the Paris Metro and on trains, typically in pairs with one person distracting you, and the FCDO records SERIOUS ASSAULTS on RER lines B and D, which matters because line B is the train most visitors take from the airports. Drink spiking is named with the drugs rather than hinted at: be alert to the possible use of date rape drugs including GHB and liquid ecstasy. Strikes and demonstrations happen at short notice and can stop trains and close roads, usually peacefully. And wildfires affect the south in hot dry summers.
If you are driving to a Channel port, the FCDO has a specific instruction. It records attempts by people to enter private vehicles in order to reach the UK illegally, that camper vans are targeted while stationary or in slow traffic, and that obstacles are sometimes placed on roads to ports including the Calais port road. Keep your doors locked, keep moving where it is safe to do so, do not leave the vehicle unattended, and if it is not safe to proceed, stop and call 112.
The beaches themselves carry real hazards and visitors treat them as monuments rather than as coast. The Channel tides here are large, the sand flats at Omaha and Utah go out a long way and come back fast, the water is cold year round, and there are rip currents. Several of the cliff positions at Pointe du Hoc are above unfenced drops into craters and the sea.
Unexploded ordnance is still found along this coast, mostly offshore and occasionally on land. Do not pick up metal objects on the beaches or in the dunes.
The cemeteries are places of burial, which is worth stating: they are not photo opportunities, and the French and American authorities that maintain them ask for quiet and modest dress.
The Bayeux Packing List
Channel weather: wet, windy and cool, with a lot of standing still outdoors.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer for a beaches day in particular, because that day is mostly spent standing: at a cemetery, at a gun battery, on an exposed cliff, in wind coming off the Channel, with no walking to keep you warm. Wool holds its warmth damp, which cotton under a shell does not. From October to April add a heavyweight merino base layer.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket with a hood that cinches. There is no shelter at any of the landing sites.
Merrell Moab 3 waterproof hiking boots with Darn Tough merino socks: the batteries and the Pointe du Hoc crater field are mud, wet grass and broken concrete, and the beaches are soft sand.
A RAYMYLO insulated water bottle for a long day on the coast, where facilities are at the museums rather than between them.
Not linked and worth packing: A WARM HAT AND GLOVES outside midsummer, which the Channel wind justifies; MODEST, QUIET CLOTHING for the cemeteries; A PAPER MAP, since the coast roads are a maze of small turnings; and TISSUES, which sounds trivial and is not: a great many visitors are unprepared for how they feel at the cemeteries. France is card-friendly throughout.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Bayeux
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
The landing beaches are coast rather than monuments and the hazards are real: Channel tides here are large, the sand flats at Omaha and Utah go out a long way and return fast, the water is cold all year, and there are rip currents. SEVERAL POSITIONS AT POINTE DU HOC SIT ABOVE UNFENCED DROPS into craters and the sea. UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE IS STILL FOUND ALONG THIS COAST, mostly offshore and occasionally on land: do not pick up metal objects on the beaches or in the dunes. THE CEMETERIES ARE PLACES OF BURIAL and the authorities that maintain them ask for quiet and modest dress. CHECK THE TAPESTRY MUSEUM'S OPENING ARRANGEMENTS BEFORE YOU TRAVEL, as it is subject to a major renovation programme. EARLY JUNE IS THE ANNIVERSARY and the whole area books out months ahead.
US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: the Centre Hospitalier de Bayeux has an emergency department, with the Caen university hospital 30 minutes away for anything major. Dial 112 for an ambulance or 15 for the SAMU. On the coast, 196 is the sea rescue number. A pharmacie posts the duty rota. France is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which means you pay the same patient share a French resident pays rather than nothing. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. French hospitals are excellent and a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, handles minor problems without an appointment and will tell you where the duty pharmacy is out of hours. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 15 for a medical emergency or 112 for anything.
Official health authority: Sante publique France, the national public health agency. covers the Normandy regional health agency
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Paris.
Official tourism authority: Atout France, the national tourism body. publishes the Tapestry museum's current opening arrangements, the cathedral hours and the D-Day site and cemetery visiting times
Takeaways
The audio guide walks you past the Tapestry at its own pace. Go round twice.
The cathedral is as good and far quieter. Find the crypt.
The beaches need a car or a tour, and a warm layer whatever the month.
Do the museum in town before you drive out. The campaign makes more sense in that order.
Solo women safety assessment: Bayeux is an easy and rather gentle place to travel alone. It is a small, well off Norman town with a large and respectful visitor economy, a compact centre, and streets that are quiet rather than unsafe after dark; the D-Day tours are run by professional operators who collect from hotels, which solves the one logistical problem a solo traveller has here, namely a coast with thin public transport. 112 REACHES POLICE, AMBULANCE AND FIRE free from any phone including a locked one, 15 reaches the SAMU, and 196 is the sea rescue number, which matters once you are on the coast. FRANCE'S ADVISORY CARRIES ONE CLAUSE THAT IS SPECIFICALLY RELEVANT IF YOU DRIVE: it records attempts by people to enter private vehicles bound for the UK, names camper vans and the roads to the Channel ports, and instructs drivers to keep doors locked, keep moving where safe, and call 112 if it is not. Bayeux is an hour and a half from Cherbourg and thirty minutes from the Ouistreham ferry, so this is practical rather than abstract. THE THING VISITORS MISJUDGE IS THE BEACHES, because they come as memorials and they are open Channel coast. The tidal range here is large, the flats at Omaha and Utah run out hundreds of metres and refill quickly, the water is cold in August and dangerous in February, and there are rip currents; several of the positions at Pointe du Hoc stand above unfenced drops into shell craters and the sea. UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE IS STILL TURNED UP along this coast, so metal objects in the sand or the dunes are to be left alone and reported, not picked up. AND A PRACTICAL POINT THAT IS ABOUT COMFORT RATHER THAN RISK: a beaches day is a standing day, in wind, with no shelter at any site, which is why the warm layer matters more here than the distance walked would suggest. Lastly, the cemeteries are burial grounds and are maintained as such; quiet, covered clothing is both expected and, most visitors find, what they want anyway.
Reading On
Bayeux is Normandy and the region has its own guide here. The Normandy packing list covers the region and the landing beaches as a whole, including Rouen and the lower Seine. East, the Amiens packing list and Dunkirk packing list cover the north and another coast with a war to remember, with the Reims packing list in Champagne. South, the Brittany packing list covers the peninsula west and the Loire Valley packing list and Amboise packing list the chateaux country, with the Versailles packing list near Paris. For the country the France travel guide for women and the France packing list carry the transport, the regions and the practical material in full. For why wool matters when a day is spent standing still in wind, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
