Bayeaux Cathedral

Bayeaux Cathedral, very old, 1047-1077

Nave; nothing fancy

Cracks in the ceiling always worry me...

Beautiful window

The best part was the crypt and its 12th century paintings,

a couple dozen or so depicting angels playing musical

instruments

Bagpipe

Double-flute

And, upstairs, a later painting of the Becket martyrdom;

Henry was very, very sorry

 

A Good Yarn

The Normandy and Brittany coasts are pretty familiar ground,

relatively speaking, and we always enjoy seeing them; this is

our third or fourth visit. Maybe Vicki's fifth. Anyhow,

after spending the night at an aire in Merlontin-sur-Mer,

we drove on to Bayeaux, inadvertently skipping Caen.

At Bayeaux, we walked the town a bit, saw the Cathedral,
and--once more dear friends...--the Bayeaux Tapestry.

Having seen the ground at Battle, UK, and the presentations

there, it was very interesting to seeing the 10th century

Norman perspective. We drove on, at length, camping at a

designated "camping-car" site at Arromanches. Above,

the gale continues, violently, the morning after our channel

crossing; sand blowing over the sea-wall at Merlontin-sur-mer

Street scene in Bayeaux...lunch time;
we had hoped to eat at the patisserie at the
tapisserie, but settled instead for a local

bistro, Vicki doing the galettes, me the
fish soup

The 200+ year old Liberty Tree in Bayeaux--

planted at the time of the Revolution

Entry to the tapestries, still fascinating (no pix)

And, if you can find a US-DVD-compatible version, I heartily

recommended the new animated version...a hoot!

Dover/Calais

Saturday's fine weather turned awful Sunday. The captain of the "Pride of Kent" described the Channel as in a "violent gale." Winds of 75 mph, gusts to 90. Our departure was delayed 2 hours; high seas and higher winds; lots of very sick people, but the Dramamine worked for us.

So the Grey Wanderer has had its last boat ride for a while, and we are back in beautiful France.

Our three months+ in the UK were not nearly enough. The last week, we kept asking ourselves if we really had to leave. But the weather kept getting worse and worse and answered that question. So now we're heading west along the Normandy coast, turning south, eventually, and looking forward to some sun and some warmth.



Dover Beach

..."Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night. "

--Matthew Arnold, 1867 (the whole poem is at

http://www.eecs.http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/dover.html)

 

Ferry traffic

 

The harbor exit, leaving in a "violent gale"

 

Ships passing

 

A really big one

 

White cliffs of Calais

Calais beach and harbor entrance

Dover and Castle

November 20 we drove on to Folkstone and the Vicarious
bookstore, which maintains a collection of European and
UK camping guides. After stocking up there, we drove on,
in a downpour, to Dover, and stopped at the town center
carpark, where overnighting is allowed. We shopped all the
charity stores, donating as well as purchasing, then took in
the castle the next day. Above, the giant TV screen in city
square, Dover

Dover castle by night

Main castle by day; it's a huge, curtained,

11th-12th century structure

Keep

Throne room; English Heritage just finished a major

restoration in August, furnishing the keep with a variety of

objects thought to be typical of what it was like in the 12th

century; "history in technicolor" they call it



Banquet hall; more history in technicolor







Just down from the keep, the 1st century Roman lighthouse

and the 10th century Saxon church

We also visited the Dover Wartime Tunnels (of which there

are nearly 4 miles' worth); the tunnels date from the

Napoleonic Wars, but were expanded and used importantly

in WWII, especially in directing the Dunkirk evacuation;

similar in approach, exhibit-wise, to the Cabinet War

Rooms; no pix allowed

More Canterbury Cathedral

Medieval painting on wall showing the
life of St. Eustace

Detail; apparently St. Eustace was converted after having a
vision of Christ crucified on the antlers of a deer; the Lord
works in mysterious ways...

Beautiful blue window

The Canterbury Pilgrims window: Chaucer's agent saw this
in 1277 and dashed off the following note: "Jeff: how about
pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury? Could
be a vehicle for your short stories; cross-section of society
...what do you think?"

The Black Prince, a personal favorite

Set up for event the next morning; where's the most
 important guy sit? (or possibly the tallest?)

In addition to the items depicted here, we also visited the crypt (no pix), which was quite interesting.

Becket

The bad guys entered through this archway

Thomas fell here

Scene of the crime

And then there is this shrine, in the chancel, which marks the 
spot of the original official shrine, 13th-16th centuries, until 
Henry VIII ordered it removed; nobody likes Henry II or VIII

For obscure reasons, our patron saint is Thomas Becket. It's mostly about the movie, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. And a date to see the movie. But we never miss the martyrdom sight when we're in Canterbury.

Interestingly, we had a long conversation with a prelate, a local, who regards Thomas as an interloper who only spent enough time in Canterbury to get killed there; wasn't a church-man anyway, "really." A far more substantial local figure he recommended was St. Dunstan, who, from the description, indeed sounded impressive and willing to defy quite a few kings. We still like Richard Burton.

Canterbury Cathedral

A leaning bookstore

Deserves a leaning door

Canterbury Cathedral

West Face

Nave

Beautful stonework at entry to choir (note scaffolding at
right...the south transept is falling in (pieces of it) and is
being reinforced)

Incredible fan vaulting in the crossing ceiling, 10 or 15
stories up there

November 19 We drove on to Dorking and Beastleigh Dorking on-the-Bum and a big caravan/RV store, shopping a bit, then on across still beautiful Kent to Canterbury, more shopping and the great cathedral, staying the night finally at coach park.

Windsor Castle

Part of Windsor Castle; it's quite huge

One entry way

The original 12th century keep, built by 

Henry II

Big bailey; the Queen lives  in the high middle structure,
so we were told

In tough times, the changing of the guard is cut back...

Chapel of St. George, very impressive fan vaulting, etc., 

but, as with elsewhere indoors, no pix

Night-time from our "camp site"

We reluctantly left London and drove back out to Windsor, to see the great castle. I was impressed, obviously more so than our 1989 visit, which I had completely forgotten. We parked that night in a city carpark, legally, right under the castle.