Friday, July 3

We were back on the bus at eight this morning for our day’s travels.

First on the itinerary was the Caen Peace Memorial. As the name suggests, it’s located in the town of Caen. The town was extensively damaged during the Normandy campaign. About 35% was destroyed in combat (and more damaged), but some guidebooks give the figure as 70%. Having your city destroyed is a golden opportunity for urban renewal, so many damaged buildings were destroyed rather than repaired, and some undamaged buildings were torn down, as well.

I have issues with the rest of the name, Caen Peace Memorial. It’s a war museum. It’s a very nice war museum, which presents its material clearly and effectively. Exhibits are multimedia- artifacts, text, and videos. The exhibits are on the floor below the entry, reached on a wide spiral. As we descend, we are shown Hitler’s rise. The wall starts white, but as you descend, it turns light gray, then dark gray, and the texture goes from smooth to rough. Dark, rough times are ahead, no doubt. For the most part, it’s about the Normandy campaign. One large room is dedicated to the Holocaust. Another room covers the Pacific.

The museum is built on top of a large command bunker built by the Germans. General Wilhelm Richter’s headquarters staff (716th Infantry Division) directed operations from here during the campaign, occupying the bunker from June 5 to June 23. I was a bit disappointed – there’s very little of the bunker visible. Visitors navigate through what was a central corridor, but the passage is modern and comfortable, with several exhibits but no feeling that we’re in a bunker.

Our next stop was Les Vergers de Ducy. The estate is a large apple orchard that produces organic apple juice, hard ciders, pommeau, and calvados. After we learned a bit about how these products are made (and what they all are), we had a nice buffet-style lunch of chicken, potato salad, beets, carrots, a variety of local cheeses, with a tasty rice pudding for dessert. We also sampled all their products as well as a couple of jellies.

From there, we headed to Bayeux for a visit to the cathedral. Our guide was a wealth of information about the place – too much to retain it all. It’s of the same era as the cathedral I visited in Brussels. It was nice to have somebody telling me what I was looking at.

Construction began in the 11th century by William the Conqueror’s brother, who was made bishop at the age of 15. In the following centuries, it was expanded. Our guide explained many of the frescoes and friezes and stained glass. Each tells a story to the illiterate congregation, including the Last Supper to the resurrection in one fresco, to the assassination of Beckett in another. She kept calling them “comic strips”, which gets the point across, but there’s not a lot of comic content in these stories. Also, if you try to read them left-to-right, top-to-bottom, you’ll get the story backwards: most are read from the bottom up and alternate between left-right and right-left.

I think our visit there would have included a look at the Bayeux Tapestry if it had been on-site. It’s currently making its way to London for display in the British Museum. Our guide told us its story as well, while noting that it’s an embroidery, not a tapestry. Some wags, knowing the history of the British Museum, suggested the French might want to verify that the original was returned and not a copy.

Before returning to Honfleur, we had some time to wander through Bayeux. It’s a bit congested right now, as the town is hosting its annual Medieval Festival. We managed to find a patisserie, where we indulged in a treat called a Mont Blanc. It was decadent. If I lived in France, I’d balloon up to 400 pounds and die of diabetes. I find these little gems almost irresistible.