Sunday 2nd March :Peace Museum in Caen and Bayeaux Tapestry

Cathederal at Bayeaux - we couldn't take photos of the tapestry
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Up earlyish and drove to Caen. It was our first day with the GPS and it drove us crazy – taking us down tiny roads, having problems with satellites, going in the opposite directions to the road signs etc. Aaahhhh! We hate this thing and think it is possessed by some being that wants us to end up at a deserted chateau where we will be kept prisoner by a madman. Honestly, it was worse than no use at all. Despite this we made our way to the Peace Museum in Caen.

The Peace Museum was amazing. It had two very moving films. The first was about the landings at Normandy. The screen was split and it showed both sides preparing to go to battle and then the battles as they played out and the Allies eventually liberated France etc. The other film was more about the injustices and wars going on around the world now. It is called “Hope” but it was really only at the end that more uplifting things were shown. Very powerful. We also sat and listened to translations of people talking about their experiences of war as children. We put Michael and Kate into a crèche while we looked at the rest of the museum. Lots of bits and pieces from the war – fighter jets, a wedding dress made of parachute silk, tanks, models of wars etc. Parts of the museum were extremely confronting and both of the films made me cry. It showed some realities of war that we must not forget. Tess says she never wants to go into another museum about war again – it was too awful. Aweful but I think important for the kids to see. Every town here has a prominent war memorial and there are signs to military cemeteries everywhere. I think they needed to have some of the theory made real…

One of the beaches at Normandy
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After the museum we went to see the Bayeaux tapestry in Bayeaux. This depicts the history behind and the occasion of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when the Norman, William the Conqueror forcefully claimed his rightful place as the King of England. They had an audio guide for all of us that took us right around the 70m tapestry, telling us about every scene. The kids were riveted. (Mum, I can’t find the guy with the arrow through his eye. Dad, why did they take the clothes off the guys who died in battle? Mum,they said there were three women, did you find them all?) It is a very impressive piece of needlework – embroidery rather than what we call tapestry. The colours were lovely and they really managed to get the expressions and emotions onto the faces. It has been described as a comic strip from the middle ages and it certainly told a good story very effectively. Apparently they used to hang it up in a church so commoners could ‘read’ history.

Lookout above the beach
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As dusk fell we made our way to a small coastal town – we wanted to see one of the D-Day beaches. Hard to believe that such a beautiful place was the scene of so many horrors of war. The beach was covered with thousands of large shells and there was a very touching memorial statue – In memory of those who have lost their lives at sea. We made it home in the dark- but no thanks to our GPS.