Just another meltdown
Yesterday, I undertook to go to Bayeux, to see the world-famous Bayeux Tapestry. The Bayeux Tapestry is a 70m long embroidered cloth that tells the story of William the Conqueror’s defeat of Harold and the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is a remarkable thing, it’s nearly 1000 years old, almost entirely intact and still quite vibrant in its colouring – much of the original stitching retains most of its original colour.
The Tapestry is housed in the Centre Guillaume-le-Conquérant, a museum dedicated to life in the 11th century, which explains how the Tapestry was made, and how people lived in those times. It’s a lovely little museum, and I quite enjoyed myself.
The day, on the whole, was hit-and-miss.
When I had originally bought the train ticket from Rouen to Bayeux, it was to leave around 830 and arrive around 1100. In France, however, some tickets are good all day on the day of travel, on any train, and even for some time after. It’s a fantastic system.
I had decided to take a 700 train, to get to Bayeux by 930, so I could see as much as I could cram in. I was up at 530, out the door at 600, and at the station by 630. All was good.
So I get on the train to Caen, switch trains, and get on the train to Bayeux. This is an older train, though, so no electronic scroll telling you anything. So I sat back, looked outside the window…
…and woke up 45 minutes on the other side of Bayeux.
I jump off the train, go into the station, and luckily, there was a train in the other direction in 20 minutes. An hour and 12€ later, i detrained in Bayeux. It was spitting as I walked to the museum.
The museum took around an hour in all, including the film, and afterwards I found a little cafe. I had a fantastic pizza (although the fried egg in the middle pur me off a bit) and went to find the Tourism Office. It’s a quaint building off to the side of the main street, and as I discovered, closed between 1230 and 1400. It then began to pour, one of those cold, needling spring rains that peirces through whatever you’re wearing. Within a few minutes, I was soaked and miserable.
I decided to try and find the D-Day museum, so I followed the signs and started walking. It was still raining, I was unhappy and the museum was nowhere in sight.
So I turned around, walked back to the train station, and hopped the first train back to Rouen. That’s the nice thing about travelling on your own: you can come and go as you please.
Of course, it wasn’t that easy. I got to Caen, and discovered it was a 2-1/2 hour wait for the next train to Rouen.
I have heard many good things about Caen, but in my state of mind, and with the weather being pretty miserable, I stayed in the station. It was actually nice to catch up on some of my podcasts.
I walked in my front door at around 1930, and I was happy to be home. Bayeux seems like a lovely town, and I think that if I had been with people I ‘d have had a better time, maybe even paid for one of the D-Day Beaches tours that were advertised at the train station.
I’m starting to think I can time my meltdowns in accordance with my length of travel and the weather – the last big one I had was in Sydney with Adam, and before that, in Atlanta. All around shitty weather.
Still, I’m looking forward to coming back to Bayeux (with friends next time) to really get out and enjoy the town.
I really hope it’s sunnier in Portugal.
Rocky on the Road 