Norman invasions

As the title of this post suggests, my travels this weekend centered around Norman invasions, though in opposite directions.  Katherine's cousin Mariel visited us this weekend, and we took her to Bayeux to see the tapestry and the town in general.  I had visited Bayeux two years ago on an excursion with CIEE, but I'm a total nerd so visiting a tapestry (that's really an embroidery, incidentally) that chronicles the events surrounding William the Conqueror's invasion of England makes my heart go pitter-pat.  Since the tapestry is almost 1000 years old and has already had a pretty rough history (being stored for 700 years in a chest in a drafty church that liked to catch on fire, being used as a wagon cover in a war, being chopped up, etc isn't very good for textiles, from what I gather) no photos are allowed, but here's one of my favorite scenes: 

Here we see Harold's tragic demise.  Beware of arrows to the eye, children!

From this (probably illegally copied) image you can maybe see why this tapestry interests me so much.  It's essentially an early-day comic book, with bright colors, lots of action, plenty of detail, and some nifty images in the top and bottom panels.  What is there not to love?

After viewing the tapestry and the museum Cathya, Katherine, Mariel, and I visited the cathedral.  

Aren't we cute?

A good case for cleaning out your gutters/gargoyles: they might turn into chia pets.

Facade of the cathedral

On Sunday we visited a site relating to another Norman invasion.  Here's a hint: It came from the other side of the Channel and occurred in 1944.  Our garderie buddy Lydia and her husband Patrick took us to the Coteau (a hillier, older part of Deauville) to walk around an area where the German army had some of its bunkers.  It's easy to forget (at least, for me) because Deauville is amazingly safe (the lady I babysit for left her car unlocked with her keys in the ignition for a few days AND IT WAS STILL THERE when she realized her mistake!!!) but 70ish years ago it was probably considered to be a possible place for the Allied invasion.  Also of note is that Patrick, who works in construction, pointed out a house to us where they found bombs left over from the war as they were building it.  Kind of scary!

It's difficult to distinguish, but here are some of the bunkers.

Patrick and Lydia check out the view.

The coast!  I think right now you're looking at Blonville and Villers sur Mer.

Entrance into a pretty extensive bunker.  I doubt the handrails date back to the war, though.

Holes in the ground from bombs.

Deauville! The white roof you see on the right of the picture is the roof of the pool, and my house is probably a little up and to the right of that.

Stained glass window from the church in Villers-sur-Mer. 

Not to be sacrilegious or anything, but does it look like the small child is hold the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch to any of you?  (that was a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference)

Lydia, Cathya, Mariel, Katherine, and me

And would any Sunday afternoon walk be complete without a visit from the mouettes??