OIDFA Trip Days 6-8 Bayeux Took an early train out of Alencon to Caen where I changed trains to Bayeux. Hotel was, for me, a half hour walk from the train station but I found it. I didn't know it at the time, but it was across the street from the back door of Hotel du Doyen (now a museum) that sometimes has lace exhibits. My first walk in town located the post office, cash machine, church, and Bayeux Tapestry.
The Tapestry was one of my main goals of this trip. I had been reading books about it for a year so knew it's history, story, etc, quite well. I was both intrigued and appalled by the presentation. I was excited to actually see it in person. However...it is a number one tourist attraction like Disneyland, and attracts almost as many people. There were literally hoards coming through the exhibit. To move the crowds along, they gave every person a tape player thing to hold to the ear with the story. It took this tape about 20 minutes to tell the story. If a person moved from numbered panel to numbered panel with the story, they moved past the panels with very little time to really look at them. For a school kid, it was probably all the time and story he would be interested in. But for a serious study of the tapestry, it was the pits. It began with setting the scene and told about panal 1. Then it said "scenes 2 & 3 show....... Scene 4 is....and Scene 5 is...." A person had to almost run past scenes 2-3-4 to be at 5 when it told about it. I found a Pause button on the player, so would stop and start the story as I slowly moved along. When a bus load of people came through in a herd, I would sit in a window seat at the back of the aisle and wait until the crowd lessened. Many of the details of the story were left out of the recorded story. I'm sure it took me well over an hour to view the length of the tapestry. I had three days in Bayeux, so I went back the third day and went through it again. That time the Pause button would not work on my player so I just let it run itself out and ignored it. I spent all the time I wanted on each panel, letting the crowds by and making use of the slack time between groups. Bus loads of school kids came through. It was prime end-of-school excursion time and Bayeux is a popular destination. This second visit let me concentrate on details that I missed the first time. Thousand year old embroideries are very rare. At the first visit, I was given a brochure that I put in my purse. That first evening, I read it. It was promoting a display of the Longest Embroidery in the World -- made in the year 2000 in Friesland, Netherlands. It was in the chapel next door to the Tapestry. The next day I had to seek it out. It was a series of sampler panels made by many different people...all on the same fabric and with the identical embroidered borders so they made a continuous strip when sewn together. The center of each panel was entirely up to the embroiderer. He/she had to design whatever they wanted. It was to celebrate Friesland, it's people, and it's history. A panel was made for each village with the village name and shield, then all the panels from that village were attached. Then the next village, and the next. I think there were over 200 panels with a wide variety of styles and subjects. The story of each panel was in a large notebook. I took the time to read each story as I looked at the panels. Since there were no printed brochures of the panels that I could easily buy, I tried to take lots of pictures...at least of the panels that I thought were most interesting. If you ever read of the Friesland Sampler or Embroidery being displayed near you, try to see it. It's well worth some effort. My third day in town I went back to this exhibit again, and took more pictures. Before my trip, someone on the List said that there was supposed to be a lace display at the Hotel du Doyen. My Tapestry ticket got into that museum also, so I went. I found out that the museum rotates displays on lace, art, and pottery. This time it was antique pottery made in that town. The only lace was a Chantilly lappet that was draped over a huge ceramic pot, for some unknown reason. I searched out the lace school/workshop I had heard of in Bayeux. It was a small store close to the chathedral. There were 3 ladies working at pillows, and the owner. Few spoke English, but they let me look around. There were some lace items for sale. And some books. I bought a pendant/necklace that looked interesting. They also let me take pictures when I held up my camera and asked "Photo?" The next day I headed for a lace/embroidery place that was open only on Wed and Sat. This was Wednesday. As I got near it, I found the adjacent street was closed off for a street market. It was fun walking then length of this street and looking at everything. After I visited the lace place, I came back to the street fair and got a small coin purse and some strawberries. The Lace/Embroidery school was a small shop on a side street where people could take lessons in bobbin lace, embroidery and hardanger. You could get a lesson for an hour, a day, or ongoing lessons each week or whenever you came in. There was very little English among these ladies but they let me look, and take pictures. I bought a booklet describing the Bayeux Embroidery Stitch used in the tapestry. I also visited the Musee Memorial de la Bataille de Normandie, and the Bayeux cathedral -- smaller than Chartres. It has some very old frescos on the ceilings in the vault under the main church. Bayeux was a pleasant place to visit...especially after the main crowds of the day had gone away. In Bayeux, as well as Brussels and Brugge, there were tourist shops with lace for sale. Most of it was imported from China, but mixed in were some locally made laces, usually small items like greeting cards or hankies. Some antique lace was available at a good price. Days 6-8 No lace collection, but two embroideries and church number 2. Alice in Oregon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
