Bayeux Tapestry and nuclear submarine

We decided to make the most of our last day.  We left Caen early and stopped in Bayeux to see the famous Bayeux tapestry.  Its a 230 ft long tapestry of wool embroidery on linen.  It's over 1000 years old and depicts William the Conquerer's conquest of England.  It has 70+ frames of story, starting with when old King Edward, who was childless, sent his nobleman Harold to William in Normandy to tell him that William was the heir apparent.  Apparently when Edward died, at the last minute he chose Harold as heir instead.  Harold held the throne for about 9 months before William invaded England and eventually chopped his head off and claimed the throne.

This is the scene of Edward's death and burial.  The large box is the casket. 

This is William on a military campaign (before going to England)  He was in the area of Mont St Michel and crossing the hazardous sands at low tide.  There are horses foundering in the quick sands that are there. 

These are the workmen assembling a fleet of ships to sail William's forces to England to claim the crown.

They are loading supplies onto the ships - suits of armor, arrows. 

They sail across the Channel.

And disembark.  You can even see the horse stepping out of the boat with one foot still in the boat.

The bishop (?) accompanied William but could not shed blood, so he took a mace with him so he could knock someone senseless if attacked (ha).  He is the figure second from the left. 

They set fire to towns.

And marched on Harold.

The forces clashed.

And heads rolled (literally in the margins).

And Harold is killed.

There was more to the museum, but we had a timetable to keep to get Delaney to the port in Cherbourg and get me back to Paris to turn in the rental car.  

It was all I could do to bypass the cathedral in Bayeux, but the exterior was beautiful (especially with the flower baskets on the street).

Our final stop was the Cite de la Mer maritime museum at the port.  They had a full inside tour of a decommissioned Redoutable class French nuclear sub.  They were active from the 1960's to the 1990's.  It was a beast!

Engine room.  The audioguide did a good job talking about all the measures they took to make the sub run as quietly as possible, including the hertz level (?) of the electricity.   Everything was mounted on an additional layer of material not against the hull to reduce noise as well. 

The miles and miles of duct work, wires and pipes was astounding. 

The one thing they did not leave in was the nuclear power plant.  They cut the sub in two, pulled out the reactor and put it back together empty in that space. 

Missile lanch area.  It carried 16 nuclear warheads. 

One of several periscopes

Command deck, first mate Carolyn.

Captain's cabin

Officers' lounge

Sailors mess and lounge

Sailors' bunks

Bathroom.  They generated their own air and purified sea water for 70 days at a time while on station. 

Torpedo in the forward bay.

We kept to our schedule and I took Delaney over to the commercial ferry terminal and said au revoir.  Then I hit the road for Paris.  

Abbaye aux Hommes, Trip to the beach, exploration of a WWII bunker complex

On Sunday we decided to attend a service in a local church.  The Abbaye aux hommes was just down the street from us with services at 9:30 and 11:00.  We opted for 9:30 and I'm glad.  It was 1 hr 20 mins.  The service was in both Latin and French.  I was partly able to follow along in the bulletin and caught maybe 20% of the homily.  I'd hear words I recognized, but couldn't string them together to catch the message.  The acoustics were very live and the echo made it even harder.  But the music was beautiful.  The service had a lot of chanting that was done in a call and response form.  The musical notations in the bulletin looked like they might have in the 1700's with irregular spacing and what looked like handwritten notes on the staff.  It was an experience. There were perhaps 100 people in attendance. 

Delaney wasn't feeling great (we both caught colds) so we went back to rest for a while before deciding how to spend the afternoon.  After a nap, we decided to go for a drive out to the coast near us and walk along the beach.   

Although it had been warmer when we arrived (80 F), a cold front had passed through at it was about 55-60 F with a strong wind.  We knew we wouldn't wade, but it was a pretty day.  The guy above though  chose to go swimming!

There were a lot of people walking along the board walk and on the beach, and a lot of happy dogs frolicking.

There were beach huts all along the shore with a few people doing end-of-season repairs on them. 

This was Sword beach, where the British troops came ashore during D-day and not far from where the Canadians landed. 

Delaney and I were instantly drawn up the beach where we could see small sails on the horizon.  When we got there, we discovered this shore racers instead of boats.  It looked like a lesson going on with youth and a coach. 

With the tide out there was a lot of room to 'sail'. 

After the beach we pulled up our geocaching app to see if there were any larger caches nearby where we could leave the travel bugs that we brought we with us.  Delaney found one that was in the midst of a old WWII command center that had been preserved as a historical site.  

This center was on the top of a small hill overlooking the sea (maybe 2 km away). This is a map of all of the trenches as they were in 1944.  You can see a black line bisecting the map - this is a village road from the coast that runs inland.  The larger dark square on the left along the road is a reinforced vehicle garage with machine gun turret. The other two larger squares in the middle are the two command centers, also with machine gun turrets.  The grey circle around the complex was the mine field and there were two full fences of barbed wire around the hill top. 

This is a little bit larger map of the area.  The place we were (Hillman) is along the bottom.  Directly above this complex was another smaller one (closer to the shore).  There were connected by telephone (?) cable so they could talk to each other. 

View of the ocean from the hill top. 

Left over tank.  

Treads still in place.

We found our geocache and left a travel bug.  Unfortnately the ones that were supposed to be in the cache were missing. 

The first building we came across was the well.  It contained a pump and drew water from 30 m down.  You can see how deep the reinforced building went before reaching the pump. It supplied the full complex which sometimes had over 50 people in it. 

This was the water storage tank (Delaney gives you the scale). It was connected by pipe to the pump.  It was completed filled in with dirt/rubble until 2002 when it was rediscovered and cleared. Water was used for drinking, cooking, washing, toilets, and for making the tons of concrete used to create this fortification. 

Command Post A.  6 officers were permanently on duty here.  It has it own generator, ventilation system, and defenses. On the day this location was captured by a Suffolk regiment, 70 German soldiers were holed up here and surrendered. 

I took these photos so anyone reading can have a little interactive experience too :)

Inside the machine gun turret, someone had re-painted the skyline with local buildings and distances. I think there are more trees in the area now than there were then. 

You can just see the ocean in the distance. 

There was only one way for vehicles to drive onto the site without caving in the trench system.  This is a small reinforced bridge over one of the trenches where supplies could come in. 

This is the cookhouse and dining area. 

Kitchen area

Emergency escape hatch

This is the bridge over the trench for deliveries.  The local road is to the right.

The garage